G Thomas comments

Reckless:

Do other countries use separate flags for the Navy?

Yes, some do.

I'm British, so already happen to know that the UK Royal Navy (RN) uses the "White Ensign"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Ensign

That flag is used to separate RN vessels from those operated by Royal Naval Reserve and Merchant shipping (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ensign, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ensign)

Many ex-British Empire, current Commonwealth and ex-Commonwealth countries also use variations of the White Ensign for their own Navies/Maritime Defense Forces...

Typically

See, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Myanmar(Burma)...

In fact, check out : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_ensign

Hmm. Looks like this photo was a 'staged' one (as opposed to a lucky, capture a natural moment one), and Reuters picked it up.

Reason why I think this. Because I recognize the 2nd girl on the left. She was on TV yesterday, on NHK news coverage. She was apparently one of the ladies affected by the "Harenohi" kimono rental issue.

Of course, one does now wonder, was this girl actually one of the ones affected, or did NHK (and other news outlets) have a bunch of ladies lined up for whatever 'story' they wanted to run yesterday?

/strokes chin