Should the color of Japanese stoplights really translate to "red / yellow / blue"?


I'm interested in the translation of colors. As an initial point of reference,
I'd like to ask about the color of stoplights in the USA and Japan.

In Japan, the color for "go" is said to be "青い". In the USA, it is said to be
"green". The translation of "青い" in Japanese / English dictionaries is "blue".
But, to begin with, every English native speaker cannot help but perceive
"blue" slightly differently. On top of that, every Japanese native speaker
cannot help but perceive "青い" slightly differently. In my opinion, the
translation of color really might be difficult. But, I'm not sure. The color
of stoplights will be my initial frame of reference.

> Can a person who understands what English native speakers generally agree is
> "green" and "blue" look at a Japanese stoplight and tell me if it is, in
> their opinion and ignoring the fact that Japanese native speakers call it
> "青い”, really "blue"? Or, is it really "green"?

thanks.




Traditionally, 青 was actually more of a blue-green color. This is true of
Chinese, too, where 青色 still means cyan more than blue. Things like 青龍 are
definitely more green than blue. This is why some current usage of the word is
slightly borderline.

This doesn't hold as strongly anymore (and was unlikely to have been the case
considering how recently traffic lights became common in the world), but worth
noting that traffic lights in many countries are slightly green-blue so as not
to be a hinderance to people with red-green colorblindness (which one can see
would be an issue if the color for "stop" was the same as for "go").

I agree with naruto for the most part though, that the actual reason is mostly
historical. The same argument holds in English for why robins have "red
breasts" when they're clearly orange.




Traditionally, 青 was actually more of a blue-green color. This is true of
Chinese, too, where 青色 still means cyan more than blue. Things like 青龍 are
definitely more green than blue. This is why some current usage of the word is
slightly borderline.

This doesn't hold as strongly anymore (and was unlikely to have been the case
considering how recently traffic lights became common in the world), but worth
noting that traffic lights in many countries are slightly green-blue so as not
to be a hinderance to people with red-green colorblindness (which one can see
would be an issue if the color for "stop" was the same as for "go").

I agree with naruto for the most part though, that the actual reason is mostly
historical. The same argument holds in English for why robins have "red
breasts" when they're clearly orange.

