The emblem was adopted on May 15, 1972, when the United States ended its administration of the Ryukyu Islands and returned Okinawa Prefecture to Japan.

[1] Accordingly, the Okinawa Prefectural Government describes the emblem itself as "a symbol of the ocean, peace, and development.

"[1] According to the prefectural notice that introduced the flag, the emblem's shade of red is Munsell value 3.5R 4/16, or hexadecimal code #C5003B.

[4][5] Historian Daisaku Kina states that the de jure independent kingdom most likely did not have a national flag as it did not have the Western notion of needing one.

[11] The U.S. administration flew the flag at Ryukyu-American Friendship Centers but soon grew disappointed with the Okinawans' apathy toward the former royal family's symbol.

[10] This caused routine confusion among other ships, culminating in the Kyuyo Maru incident of 1962, in which an Okinawan fishing boat that had entered Indonesian territorial waters was shot at by an Indonesian naval aircraft that could not deduce the boat's nationality.

[13] Following the signing of the 1971 Okinawa Reversion Agreement, the Japanese government held a public, nationwide competition to design an emblem for the prefecture.

[14] However, the committee soon discovered that the chosen design and colors resembled the mark of the All Japan Kendo Federation, and so the innermost circle was changed from red to blue on May 9.