[wodenokoto]

Japan has green traffic lights, there are no two ways around it. I’ve lived in Japan for 3 years in all the major cities. They are green, just like everywhere else. They just call them blue.

Why they do that is something you can argue about and I’ve heard Japanese try and come up with all sorts of explanations:

“The character for blue is easier to learn than the one for green, so it’s better to say blue with children.”

“They used to be blue, so we still just call it that”

“Green isn’t an original Japanese color. Before foreigners arrived we didn’t call anything green”

“They are blue!” - usually these are people who will call traffic lights in Europe and smarties blue even when speaking English.

It’s just a quirk. I think Japan places the border between blue and green different from most western cultures and that gives.