SignalTraffic Forums

by **Ampelfreund** on Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:06 pm

Japan signal Thread

I know 3 pages from fans

http://signal-net.sakura.ne.jp
http://www.trafficsignal.jp/~mitsugon/
http://www.trafficsignal.jp/~iida/

(in Japanese, nihongo de)

Pictures

are so interesting the signals

by **SirMarbelot** on Fri Jan 30, 2009 4:29 pm

Wild!

by **traffic-light-man** on Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:57 am

It's interesting to note that some signals at simple crossroads have 3 green signals, left straight on and right arrows respectivley. This is, apparently, so that they can signal banned turns at different times of the day.

David has some more info on the Japanese system, I believe from our conversations :-P

by **dlau** on Fri Feb 06, 2009 4:13 am

Here are a few fun facts:

1. Japanese signal fans do not collect signals. .... as far as I know (*´∇｀*)
They watch signals. This is similar to "bird-watching" instead of keeping a wild bird under captivity.
By the way, they are not called "Signal fans" but shinchan (信ちゃん） (For "Shingouki" 信号機 means signal head).

Similarly, railway fans are called tec-chan 鉄ちゃん, (abbreviated from Tetsudou, 鉄道... name originating from Showa 40th year).

2. Japanese LED signals have 99.5% all clear lenses.

A lot of them have individual LED elements visible.

3. In Japanese langauge, "green signal" is called "blue".

Blue ("Ao shingou", 青信号). In fact, pre-war, the green signal was called "green" ("Midori shingo" 緑信号). The law since 1947 started calling it blue.

4. Japanese vehicular singals are MOSTLY horizontally mounted, and from the right to left: Red, Amber, Blue.

In the north region, where it snows a lot (also called the Yukiguni regions, (雪国)) these signals are vertically mounted. This prevents buildup of snow in the visors from obstructing the view of the red and yellow signals.

5. Japanese yellow arrow is not for vehicles. It's for mass transit.

It means "the street tram can now proceed in the ___ direction". Otherwise, transit signals differ from region to region. But the yellow arrow is most common.

David

by **traffic-light-man** on Fri Feb 06, 2009 1:27 pm

Cool, thanks David :-P

The blue lens colour point is unusual, as I personally think many LED heads in Japan have a vivid green colour anyway, although I can see how glass lenses would have given a blue impression.

by **2070** on Sat Feb 07, 2009 7:20 am

I see they had 3M make a signal that would fit into their sections for mounting.

220 Volt? AC or DC?

There is a lot of neat stuff. What is the lens size? It looks to be a little bigger that the American 12".

Thanks for all the info on the Japanese signals. :thumbsup: