My country was occupied and brutalized by Japan in WWII. WE don't give a fuck regarding the rising sun flag being used on cars. Neither should you. Stop being offended on behalf of others.

I hate to get all nuance on the internet, but where and by whom are pretty relavant.

White people in the US? Its a little fetishistic.

Japanese people in japan? Its pretty standard, its been a symbol af the country for centuries.

Japanese people in Korea/korean areas? Its at least a little insensitive, if not more.

Context matters, and the impact of symbols varies across with setting, speaker, and viewer

Unlike Nazi Germany's use of their swastika logo, or perhaps the Confederate battle flag, the "rising sun" motif has a very long traditional history in Japan easily stretching back hundreds of years. Possibly more. Unlike the other two examples it's not like it was invented specifically to be the logo of a group of shitheads, it just happened to be a logo that was already available that some shitheads used for a while. Confederates like to try clam that their flag is "heritage." By contrast, the Japanese legitimately probably could.

The modern incarnation was adopted in 1870 or something. That predates WW2 by just a wee bit. IIRC it's still used by the modern Japanese navy (or "Self Defense Force," as they're called).

No one makes that connection, outside from those who spend way too much time on the internet, and even then not many do.

The only people that see it as anything other than an old design of Japanese military flag are terminally online people.

Probably same a confederate flag on a car. Some see it as only southern pride and others see it as a emblem of the KKK.

Tacky as fuck and usually used by people who are clueless or trying to be edgy.

The red dot makes it drift better

I don't have a problem with it, but I just don't have much context or notions that would lead me to.

I'd be more interested in hearing how 日本人 feel about it.