Lmao I was sitting in my kid’s school drop-off line this morning (in Michigan) and saw this flag. I took a pic and google searched the image, which led me to this discussion. Here’s the photo I took this morning… It’s the same house. 🤣 wtf is this thing
It seems it's Japan with that triangle on it. I'm assuming it's a 4, which may not mean anything unless you know that 4 in Japanese culture sounds like the word for death. It's likely someone against Japan in some way, whether it's the people or the government.
Oh, I aleo tried to recreate it in ibis paint, though I'm sure it's inaccurate slightly
I feel like someone opposed to Japan in general wouldn't have a culturally nuanced take, but my immediate response of alternate universe Fantastic Four is, well, comparatively dumb.
The base of the flag is to the left, so it wouldn't be a 4 as that would be reading the flag upside down. The correct orientation of the flag is rotating it a quarter turn counter-clockwise.
It's not Japanese as the proportions are wrong, the diameter of the disc should only be 3/5 the height of the flag, and if suggesting a "4", it would be written as "四" in Japanese or Chinese, and "사" in Korean, nor is it any other Japanese of Chinese character.
It might be some kind of ultra-nationalist Japanese flag with a rune...but I don't know anything about runes so someone else can weigh in if it is...
I know that’s the orientation based on the base but I think it’s actually this way & is just a variation of the anarchist A, which is almost always black A on a red background:
This is speculation and it's a journey but hear me out:
In the early 1980s there was a fascination with Japanese culture in the USA that highlighted how the Japanese did things differently, and often better, than Americans.
There was a micro industry of books about the Japanese way of doing things. Mostly those centered on corporate management, engineering, manufacturing practices and so on. However there were also books on everything from the study habits of Japanese students to Japanese family life.
The idea in all of that was Japan was out performing America. Nowhere was that idea more prominent than in the auto industry where the big 3 were closing plants hand over fist because they couldn't compete with Japanese imports which were both cheaper and more reliable.
There was a sort of admiration and hatred for Japan and like Q-Anon today some people got deep into it.
I am throwing out there the idea this flag was planted by a Boomer who was onto that "fascinated by and hatred of Japan" vibe in the early 80s.
A guy from that generation might still hold a lot of hatred in his heart for Japan but he might have read enough about Japan to know the number 4 sounds like death in Japanese and is considered unlucky.
I realize that's a convoluted journey but that flag is very unusual and a convoluted answer might be the correct one.
That's not it. Just because it has a "4"in it doesn't make it the same flag. And it's questionable whether OP's flag features a "4" at all, it's an interesting symbol, kind of a combination of an A and a 4. I believe I've seen that flag before, but I can't put my finger on it...
That's the problem. Do NOT rely on AI stuff for flags (or heraldry), If AI was good at identifying flags (and it's absolutely terrible!), few people could come here asking about flags. By what I've seen, AI just takes the "general colours" of the flag image being queried, and spits out dozens of images with similar colours but completely different design... Humans are still better at this! :)
Actually it has helped at identifying multiple flags on here for me, I dont trust it all the time but 80% of the time it works. I wouldn't really say that was an A it looks more like a badly drawn 4
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u/Dragon_Juan1001 18h ago
japan 4