Maroon 5 uses Rising Sun flag imagery in world tour announcement
![Pop band Maroon 5 announced an upcoming Seoul concert and immediately came under fire for using an image of the Rising Sun flag in its announcement. [SCREEN CAPTURE]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2022/07/04/c95fd96e-d279-4ddf-b521-36763e57d597.jpg)
Pop band Maroon 5 announced an upcoming Seoul concert and immediately came under fire for using an image of the Rising Sun flag in its announcement. [SCREEN CAPTURE]
Pop band Maroon 5 announced an upcoming Seoul concert on Sunday and immediately came under fire for using an image of the Rising Sun flag in its announcement.
On Sunday, Maroon 5 announced its world tour, including a concert on Nov. 30 at the Gocheok Sky Dome in southern Seoul’s Guro District. This will be the band’s first concert in Korea in over three years since February 2019.
However, Maroon 5 was met with criticism after Korean netizens saw that the website used an image of the Rising Sun flag for the world tour announcement. The Rising Sun flag serves as a symbol of the Empire of Japan’s colonial rule (1910-45) of Korea and other former colonies.
Comments such as “This is an insult to Korean fans” and “The flag brings back traumatic history to Koreans” were quickly posted online in reaction to a screen capture of the website. Netizens allege that Maroon 5 has a track record of using the Rising Sun flag in its promotional images.
Maroon 5 debuted in 2002 and is best known for songs “This Love” (2002), “She Will Be Loved” (2002), “Sunday Morning” (2002), “Moves Like Jagger” (2011) and “One More Night” (2012).
BY HALEY YANG [yang.hyunjoo@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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