In Japan, is green blue? Are green traffic lights called blue?

Did you know that in Japan, the Japanese call the green light blue? The Japanese word for green is midori (緑) and blue is aoi (青い), and that’s how they refer to green lights, why? I’ve always heard discussions regarding blue and green, and indeed some traffic lights in Japan look blue. The reality is that there are many curiosities regarding this subject, which we will see in this article.

We all know that the primary colors are blue, yellow, and red. In the past, things in Japan were also the same way; they defined colors as follows:

• Black – kuroi – 黒い – Dark colors in general;
• White – shiroi – 白い – Light colors in general;
• Red – akai – 赤い – Bright colors in general;
• Blue 青い – aoi – Colorful and light colors in general;

In fact, these are the only four colors that are adjectives in the い (i) form. The other colors, even the primary yellow, are written differently:

• 黄色 – kiiro – Yellow;
• 緑 – midori – Green;
• ピンク – pinku – Pink;

Basically, in the past, there was no green, so it was called blue. Why do green things nowadays end up being called blue? Let’s take the ocean as an example; up close it is green, from afar it is blue. Many also confuse green cars with blue.

The word green entered Japan during the Heian Period (794 – 1185)

The traffic light is not the only blue

The truth is that the ideogram for blue (青) cannot be literally translated as blue because it represents light colors and is present in various words that should be green, such as:

• 青葉 – aoba – Fresh leaves (blue leaf?);
• 青芝 – aoshi – Lawns (rarely used);
• 青りんご – aoringo – Green apple (blue apple?);
• 青山 – Aoyama – District in Tokyo (blue mountain?);
• 青二才 – aonisai – Novice (wouldn’t an unripe one be green?);
• 青春 – seishun – Youth;
• 青年 – seinen – Youth;

Many of the words and concepts we just listed are associated in the West as green. With the introduction of green into the Japanese language, these remaining words are just relics that did not die. In all languages, there are words that make no sense but that we continue to use.

However, traffic lights arrived in Japan even after blue and green existed. The reality is that it was even defined as a green light (緑信号). However, the Japanese noticed that the traffic lights had more of a blue tone, so society began to associate the green light with blue, which resulted in this pattern of calling the green light blue. Even when the Japanese government was forced to maintain a greener standard, it agreed that the light would continue to be called blue (青信号).