Japan — how to identify

Public signs in Japan use a mix of

• kanji (Chinese characters) and
• the two syllabaries, hiragana and katakana.

The differences are:

• Hiragana has softer, rounded strokes
• Katakana has sharp, angular shapes

Katakana used for:

• primarily for foreign loanwords (like camera → カメラ),
• foreign names, scientific terms (plants/animals), onomatopoeia (sound words), and for emphasis (like italics),
• appearing on menus, ads, in manga, and for stylistic reasons, often mixed with Hiragana and Kanji.

A yellow-and-black diagonal reflective sleeve wrapped around a utility pole, attached with metal or plastic bands/wires.

It is installed partway up the pole, does not reach the ground, and may be partially open or fully cylindrical.

Type: Private

Shape: Short

Background: Green or white

Text: White or green

White metal guardrails - usually Type-A

Cylinder metal with one or two orange round reflectors on top on the front side and white on the back side. Reflectors placed inside grey metallic frame

May include extra attachments (snow poles on the top)

A yellow-and-black vertical reflective sleeve wrapped around a utility pole, attached with metal or plastic bands/wires.

It is installed partway up the pole, does not reach the ground, and may be partially open or fully cylindrical.

A blue pentagon showing two children crossing is used to mark school zones and pedestrian crossings

Japan’s stop sign is a red upside-down triangle with the kanji ‘止まれ’ (tomare)

On rural and mountain roads, you’ll often see concrete retaining walls with interlocking block patterns

A grey-and-white

• diagonal or
• vertical

reflective sleeve wrapped around a utility pole, attached with metal or plastic bands/wires.

It is installed partway up the pole, does not reach the ground, and may be partially open or fully cylindrical.

A green-and-white diagonal reflective sleeve wrapped around a utility pole, attached with metal or plastic bands/wires.

It is installed partway up the pole, does not reach the ground, and may be partially open or fully cylindrical.

Driving direction: Left Side

Type: Commercial, Kei cars (small cars)

Shape: Short

Background: Yellow

Text: Black

Roadside utility poles are round concrete columns with spiral grooves.

They often have:

• metal ID white plates
• guy wires
• small reflectors

Bright orange-rimmed convex mirrors are placed at junctions and blind bends

In Japan, Street View images are taken by a black or white Google car.

Sometimes you’ll see it in black, and occasionally it may even have an antenna.