Road signs in Japan

In urban areas and on national highways, direction signs have dark blue backgrounds.

Their design, black pattern and border on yellow diamond (usually with 45 cm per a side), is based on the U.S. MUTCD (due to this nation being a Major non-NATO ally).

Prohibition signs are round with white backgrounds, red borders, and blue pictograms.

Instruction signs (指示標識, shiji-hyōshiki) show points and devices on the road that drivers should pay attention.

[9] Warning signs at that time closely resembled the British design as used in Hong Kong, the only difference was the white-on-black lettering.

Unlike the 1922 and the 1940s devised road signs, it included both bilingual Japanese and English text and symbols.

[11] It was later decided to make the stop sign bilingual in both Japanese and English, but to maintain the inverted triangular shape.