A controversial flag became latest sticking point in an intensifying dispute between South Korea and Japan on Wednesday as Seoul asked International Olympic Committee to ban its use at Tokyo Games next year.

'Rising Sun' flag has been an ensign for Japan's Maritime Self-Defence Forces since 1954, but in much of East Asia, it is seen as a symbol of country's military aggression during World War II. But last week, Tokyo's Games organisers dismissed claims that emblem is a political statement and said y will allow flag at Olympics.

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Clear political symbol: Seoul Sports Ministry

That caused an uproar in South Korea, prompting it to lodge a formal complaint to IOC. World football's governing body FIFA has alrey banned flag's use. "We explained history behind flag and demanded it be banned during Olympics," Seoul's sports ministry said in a statement. flag was a "clear political symbol" that stirs up painful memories of Japan's wartime atrocities, ministry ded, likening it to "nightmares that Nazi's Swastika gives to Europeans".

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Koreans remain deeply resentful of Japan's 1910-45 colonisation of peninsula and neighbours -- both of m US allies -- are embroiled in a long-running dispute over wartime history.

A tre war between Japan and South Korea 

row spiralled into a bitter tre war in recent months after a series of South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese firms to pay for forced labour during Tokyo's colonisation. feud has seen Japan impose new restrictions on exports crucial to South Korean tech giants in July and led to neighbours removing each or from ir lists of trusted tre partners. South Koreans have since mounted a widespre boycott of Japanese goods, which saw a plunge in sales of Japanese cars and forced several airlines to suspend routes to ir neighbour because of falling demand.

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Some lawmakers have pushed for a boycott of Tokyo Olympics and a travel ban on country, citing supposed riation risks from Fukushima disaster eight years ago. South's Olympic committee said last month it lodged a complaint to Tokyo Games organisers over riation risks at venues around Fukushima as well as possibility of food produce grown in region being served to athletes in Olympic vill. 

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