The two red bands are variously explained as the founding companies or the katakana ni, the first syllable of Nippon and also meaning two. Another explanation links them to the postal flag. Rosanoski notes that the postal flag was adopted only in 1887, after NYK’s flag, and discusses the reverse claim: Nakajima Senjiro reportedly adapted the NYK ni into te for the Communications Ministry after seeing it in 1886. The Flag Bulletin bases a close-spaced original design on nineteenth-century advertisements and a 1940 account. Rosanoski questions the advertisements as authority for exact proportions. The company told him no specifications existed until 1939, allowing actual variations.
Keep the explicit scope label independent; no alias or company identity is inferred.