Hello I'm a Yi Chan Jeong, a Korean student as an exchange student at Aston University in Birmingham.

I was kind of surprised when I saw “Tokyo toys” store in city center of Birmingham, because of the fact that they use Japanese Rising Sun Flag as their logo and main interior decoration. I will explain a bit to say what is wrong with it. 

Rising Sun Flag (called the Kyokujitsu-ki) is the military flag of Japan that was used in WW2 in the process of colonizing many Asian countries and served as a symbol of imperial Japan. 

Just simply think of Swastika(Hakenkreuz). As Japan was an Allie of Nazi Germany, the meaning of Rising sun flag and Swastika is identical. And I bet you guys all know that it is serious and sensitive issue to use Swastika. It is prohibited by many laws and policies as a meaning of apologize to victims and to keep an eye on reemergence of totalitarianism.(You can understand it more easily in the link: http://english.anti-risingsunflag.net/ 

I feel painful and it will be as offensive to many Asians living in Birmingham as the Swastika would to western people. 

But after arguing about this problem to their customer service team, I only got disappointing email that they didn’t know this fact but will not going to change their logo. 

I will try my best to find what I can do about it.And make a real change. Thanks!