Roads and maps have interested me for some time now. There's
something about driving a route that was traveled by countless predecessors for
hundreds or thousands of years that piques my interest.
Little did I know that there's a (presumably) small but
dedicated group of so-called roadgeeks who take trips to experience the road
and take pictures of signage. These guys might drive to my home state, for
example, to see and discuss the country's highest numbered interstate,
shortest
interstate, or particularly
interesting interchanges. I'm haven't yet reached that level of fanaticism,
but maybe I'll get there someday. I am, however, roadgeek enough to care about
some interesting changes to signage and maps that various Japanese agencies are
considering ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
The more finalized proposal to alter Japanese signage involves new pictograms on foreign-language maps of the country. Japan's Geospatial Information Authority (GSI) polled over 1,000 people from 92 foreign countries to aid their development of 18 new map symbols. The most notable altered symbols give an interesting look at the country's attempt to satisfy different cultural requirements. For example, the Japanese symbol for a police station is a simple 'X' representing two crossed police batons, but foreign language maps produced ahead of 2020 propose instead using a saluting guard-like figure. And the Japanese symbol for post office--which resembles a 'T' inside a circle and is supposedly derived from a 19th-century Japanese term meaning "communication"--would be replaced with a more universal envelope image.
A more striking example involves changing the swastika-like manji representing Buddhist temples to a
silhouette of a stereotypical temple tower. This one in particular has been met
with backlash from native Japanese, who contend that the ancient Sanskrit
symbol (shown on this page) has been associated with Buddhism since long before
its use by the Nazi Party stigmatized it worldwide. They also believe
Westerners could learn a bit of Japanese history by discovering the truer
origins of the symbol.
Japan's National Police Agency (NPA) is also considering
a redesign of the country's stop signs ahead of the Olympic Games, which
shines some light on an interesting difference in international signage. In
almost every part of the world since the 1960's, stop signs have taken the form
of red octagons with 'STOP' written in that country's script. And
interestingly, Japan adopted that design (even adding 'STOP' in English) from
1960 to 1963 before switching to their current design, the inverted red
triangle seen here.
The NPA plans to survey foreigners in a similar fashion to
the GSI poll mentioned above and expects to complete the survey by the end of
next month. Replacing each and every sign would cost the nation over 25 billion
yen. The project would presumably cost less if the NPA decides to just add the
English 'STOP' to every existing sign, an option they're also considering.
It's not unusual for Olympic hosts to take drastic measures
to accommodate the massive influx of tourism, and Japan's no exception. The
country has a proven track record for adapting to tourists anyway: in 2013 it
changed romanized Japanese street signs to straight-up English translations to
accommodate foreigners. Speaking for myself, if I were visiting a country
notorious for earthquakes and tsunamis, I'd certainly appreciate clear signage
directing me where to take shelter in the event of another disaster.
Image credits:
Eastwind41 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons | Public domain
|
Comments rated to be Good Answers: