Japan has lodged a protest with the East Asian Football Federation demanding an investigation into a politically charged banner that was displayed at the East Asian Cup finale against South Korea on Sunday.
During the match in Seoul, which Japan won 2-1 with an injury-time goal, South Korean supporters raised a long horizontal banner referring to Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula that read: "There is no future for a race oblivious to history."
The banner, which stretched across a wide section of the stands and was written in Hangul, was displayed for about an hour from kickoff.