We all know that a green light means moving on. Only Japan claims that green is actually blue

Say it in the comments: Is the right light green or blue? (Image source: wanatithan/adobe.stock.com)

Almost everyone knows the saying: “When it’s red you have to stand, when it’s blue you can walk.” Wait, what? You didn’t read it wrong. In Japan, green is actually blue, at least when it comes to the designation of green traffic lights.

The green light of the traffic lights sometimes not only appears in blue, the Japanese also call it blue – no matter how green it is.

The reason for this lies in their language.

Green didn’t have its own Japanese word

Reader’s Digest got to the bottom of it all and asked a Japanese teacher how the blue traffic lights came about. He says:

That means: In Japan, if someone wanted to describe something green, they used the word for blue – at least until the Heian era (794-1185). Only then did the word “midori” appear. This represents the color of nature and vitality.

Even today, green things in Japan are sometimes still described with “ao” – i.e. blue.

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Japan’s traffic situation

Even in the land of the rising sun, the following applies: red for stop, yellow for caution and green for driving or running. The only difference is that the green signal is called “aoshingou” (blue signal) – and in some traffic lights it actually appears blue, as can be seen in the lead image.

Why isn’t this consistent? There is actually a simple, historical reason for this.

The global standard for the green traffic light indicating “go/run” was established in 1968 by the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic Signs and Signals (you can even read about it on the UN website).

Japan has never signed this agreementwhich is why there may be deviations. By the way, a second nation did not sign the treaty either: the USA.

According to IFL Science, the green traffic light lights with the blue glow (or blue traffic light lights with the green glow) are also a matter of Japanese cultural pride.

In 1973, the local government set standards for traffic lights in the country – and deliberately chose the shade of green that comes closest to blue.

In older traffic light systems or in rural areas, it can sometimes happen that the green traffic light signal is turquoise, at least to our western eyes.