Buzz
In Japan, a version of the game Red Light, Green Light could more accurately be called Red Light, Blue Light. Due to a unique aspect of the Japanese language, some of the country's traffic signals feature 'go' signals that appear noticeably more blue than green, as pointed out by Atlas Obscura, making Japan stand out in global traffic design.
Different languages categorize colors in various ways. For example, languages like Russian and Japanese have distinct terms for light blue and dark blue, treating them as separate shades. Some languages combine colors that English speakers distinguish, using the same word for green and blue. Japanese is one such language. While modern Japanese has separate words for blue and green, in Old Japanese, the word ao was used to refer to both colors, a concept English scholars call grue.
In contemporary Japanese, ao denotes blue, and midori refers to green, but there remains overlap in how the colors are perceived, especially in traffic lights. Officially, the 'go' color in traffic lights is called ao, despite traffic lights historically being green, as reported by Reader’s Digest. This created a linguistic dilemma: how could officials label the lights as ao when they were clearly more midori?
Since its adoption in 1968, numerous countries worldwide have signed the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, an international agreement designed to standardize traffic signals. Although Japan (and the U.S.) has not signed the treaty, it has still made strides towards adopting more globally recognized signal designs.
The Japanese government found a middle ground between international standards and linguistic concerns. Since 1973, traffic lights have been officially designated as green—though they are specifically a shade of green that is notably bluish. This allows them to still be classified as ao but ensures that foreign drivers understand the signal as indicating go. However, as noted by Atlas Obscura, Japanese drivers must pass a vision test during their licensing process to distinguish red, yellow, and blue, not green.
