Meaning of ▽ in an article


I was reading an article on TBS about increasing in electrical bill, and it
used ▽ in several places:

> このほか、▽北海道電力で６７円、▽東北電力で１１４円

and so on for several other electrical companies; I tried loking about that
symbols meaning and found some questions about symbols (like
[this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/38508/what-do-the-
shapes-%E2%97%BB-mean-in-japanese-and-are-there-variations-in-meaning/38517)
and [this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/55199/what-do-the-
triangles-circles-and-squares-mean-in-the-context-of-manga/55200)), but
nothing that seems fitting this instance.
[Here's](https://news.tbs.co.jp/newseye/tbs_newseye4346825.html) the whole
article.

Initially I was wondering if it could mean a decrease, but the article is
about price increase and it states clearly all of those are increases, so
that's not the case.

What does ▽ mean in this case?




As A.Ellett says, ▽ in this context is used as (in-line) bullet points.
Although ・（中黒 {なかぐろ}）is the most commonly used for this purpose, the ▽ symbole
("down-pointing triangle") is sometimes used in news articles. I think that it
is common only in news articles, and feel that it's more often used to list
things from which the reader wants to find one item, rather than read through
all the information.

For example:

  * [COVID-19 cases for each prefecture](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210829/k10013231251000.html) (NHK, "▽東京都は33万8750人（3081）▽大阪府は16万4773人"...)
  * [Schedules for the rugby world cup](https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/rugbyworldcup/20181001EVENT/) (Yomiuri, "▽9月20日 開会式（東京スタジアム）"...)
  * [Product recall](https://www.nikkei.com/news/print-article/?R_FLG=0&bf=0&ng=DGXNASFK2902A_Z21C13A2000000&uah=DF_SOKUHO_0010) (Nikkei, "スーパーコーンフライ▽えびとチーズのグラタン...")
  * [Weather warning](https://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/articles/-/617755) (Kyoto Shimbun, "大雨警報＝京都市▽亀岡市▽南丹市", where 大雨警報 heavy rain warning was issued for 京都市，亀岡市，南丹市…)
  * [This example from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism](https://www.mlit.go.jp/mizukokudo/sewerage/crd_sewerage_tk_000033.html) uses ・ / ○ / ▽ in this order for different depth of listings.

I wasn't able to find out why and when this symbol is preferred. My
speculations are: (1) bullet-point is also used for separate words (e.g.
ダ・ヴィンチ da Vinci / 月・水・金曜日) so maybe confusing depending on the context (2) ▽
stands out more, so it let the reader skim through the text quickly to find
the information relevant to them.

I also noticed that some of the usages lack the first bullet (the 3rd and 4th
listed above), but the meaning stays the same. Think of it as
`<ul><li></li></ul>`.

Edit: ▽ and ▼ is interchangeable.
[@sundowner](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/45489/sundowner)
provided [an answer from
レファ協](https://crd.ndl.go.jp/reference/detail?page=ref_view&id=1000179823) that
sufficiently answers this question (see the comment below). For completeness,
the「新聞や雑誌の縦組コラム」 they refer to in the answer looks like
[this](https://info.yomiuri.co.jp/media/yomiuri/column/index.html) or
[this](https://www.asahi.com/rensai/list.html?id=61).




As A.Ellett says, ▽ in this context is used as (in-line) bullet points.
Although ・（中黒 {なかぐろ}）is the most commonly used for this purpose, the ▽ symbole
("down-pointing triangle") is sometimes used in news articles. I think that it
is common only in news articles, and feel that it's more often used to list
things from which the reader wants to find one item, rather than read through
all the information.

For example:

  * [COVID-19 cases for each prefecture](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210829/k10013231251000.html) (NHK, "▽東京都は33万8750人（3081）▽大阪府は16万4773人"...)
  * [Schedules for the rugby world cup](https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/rugbyworldcup/20181001EVENT/) (Yomiuri, "▽9月20日 開会式（東京スタジアム）"...)
  * [Product recall](https://www.nikkei.com/news/print-article/?R_FLG=0&bf=0&ng=DGXNASFK2902A_Z21C13A2000000&uah=DF_SOKUHO_0010) (Nikkei, "スーパーコーンフライ▽えびとチーズのグラタン...")
  * [Weather warning](https://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/articles/-/617755) (Kyoto Shimbun, "大雨警報＝京都市▽亀岡市▽南丹市", where 大雨警報 heavy rain warning was issued for 京都市，亀岡市，南丹市…)
  * [This example from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism](https://www.mlit.go.jp/mizukokudo/sewerage/crd_sewerage_tk_000033.html) uses ・ / ○ / ▽ in this order for different depth of listings.

I wasn't able to find out why and when this symbol is preferred. My
speculations are: (1) bullet-point is also used for separate words (e.g.
ダ・ヴィンチ da Vinci / 月・水・金曜日) so maybe confusing depending on the context (2) ▽
stands out more, so it let the reader skim through the text quickly to find
the information relevant to them.

I also noticed that some of the usages lack the first bullet (the 3rd and 4th
listed above), but the meaning stays the same. Think of it as
`<ul><li></li></ul>`.

Edit: ▽ and ▼ is interchangeable.
[@sundowner](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/45489/sundowner)
provided [an answer from
レファ協](https://crd.ndl.go.jp/reference/detail?page=ref_view&id=1000179823) that
sufficiently answers this question (see the comment below). For completeness,
the「新聞や雑誌の縦組コラム」 they refer to in the answer looks like
[this](https://info.yomiuri.co.jp/media/yomiuri/column/index.html) or
[this](https://www.asahi.com/rensai/list.html?id=61).

