June• 2018 | 107using the word ao to describe what
was clearly midori. The govern-
ment decided to compromise. “In
1973, the government mandated
through a cabinet order that traffic
lights use the bluest shade of green
possible – still technically green,
but noticeably blue enough to jus-
tifiably continue using the ao no-
menclature,” Allan Richarz writes
for Atlas Obscura.
So, while it may appear that Japan
uses blue traffic lights, the govern-
ment assures us it’s actually just a
very blue shade of green – green
enough to satisf y international regu-
lations, blue enough to still be called
ao. Don’t ever say bureaucracy never
solved anything.it’s actually a green Granny Smith
apple. Likewise, green bamboo is
called aodake (‘blue bamboo’) and
an inexperienced employee who
could be described as ‘green’ in
English-speaking countries may
be called aonisai, meaning a ‘blue
two year old’. And that brings us to
traffic lights.
Initially, Japan’s traffic lights
were green as green can be. Despite
this, the country’s official traffic
documents still referred to green
traffic lights as ao rather than mi-
dori. While international traffic
law decrees all ‘go’ signals must be
represented by green lights, Jap-
anese linguists objected to their
PHOTO: ISTOCKgovernment’s decision to continue