Why are Traffic Lights Blue in Japan?
If roses are red and violets are blue, what color are the traffic lights in Japan to you?
Traffic lights in Japan are red, yellow, and blue. Or are they red, yellow, and green? Well…it depends on what you mean by blue and green.
The traffic lights themselves are usually (but not always, more about that later) bright green, the same as in the rest of the world. But in Japanese, they’re called blue — ao (青) — rather than midori (緑) — green.
If you point at a traffic light and say “midori!” you’ll get only confused stares from your Japanese friends. They won’t understand you’re telling them the light is green so get your ass in gear. Instead they’ll wonder why you’re pointing at plants or trees somewhere.
This quirk of the Japanese language trips up every new learner. It makes a good test for automated translation. But why are traffic lights called blue in Japanese instead of green? This seemingly simple question takes us down a fascinating rabbit hole of language, culture, and history.
The Japanese Color Wheel
Colors in Japan were originally organized into a wheel of 5 colors called goshiki (五色) that was brought from China. It included only the primary colors:
