Nowadays 青[い] / ao[i] is mostly reserved for blue, except in a few fossilised terms; you’d refer to the greens by 緑 / midori. (“Greens” in both senses - vegs and the colour).
This shift is recent enough to create an issue. International norms require the “go” traffic lights to be green, and when Japan adopted those norms as laws, green was still referred by 青. Nowadays however people understand the word as blue, so…
…you got blue lights. Or rather cyan as a compromise (green enough to fit international norms, blue enough to fit the local law).
All new traffic lights in Japan (at least since the switch to LED) are truly green. It is weird to hear some old drivers say “blue” instead of “green” when referring to traffic lights.
I think I have a picture somewhere of a pedestrian crossing light that’s so old it is also more blue than green in color. And it has a frosted glass faceplate instead of plastic.
I’m not surprised that the newer traffic lights are green - blue LEDs are more expensive, specially if you’re trying to reach a specific colour. Perhaps the switch prompted legislative organs to stop trying to interpret the old word through the newer, more restrict, meaning.
This reminds me a similar phenomenon in Portuguese - the so-called terra roxa “purple soil”, actually red:
The case is a bit messier as it likely involves calquing another Romance language that kept Latin rossus as “red”; likely Italian (terra rossa). But under-the-hood, it’s the same phenomenon as those Japanese drivers talking about blue traffic lights - a colour word changing meaning, but the fossilised usage still stuck there.
I’m only guessing it, but based on this picture I think that cyan instead of green lights should be indifferent for people with tritanopia (no blue channel) or tritanomaly (weak blue channel) - because both should look the same anyway.
Nowadays 青[い] / ao[i] is mostly reserved for blue, except in a few fossilised terms; you’d refer to the greens by 緑 / midori. (“Greens” in both senses - vegs and the colour).
This shift is recent enough to create an issue. International norms require the “go” traffic lights to be green, and when Japan adopted those norms as laws, green was still referred by 青. Nowadays however people understand the word as blue, so…
…you got blue lights. Or rather cyan as a compromise (green enough to fit international norms, blue enough to fit the local law).
All new traffic lights in Japan (at least since the switch to LED) are truly green. It is weird to hear some old drivers say “blue” instead of “green” when referring to traffic lights.
I think I have a picture somewhere of a pedestrian crossing light that’s so old it is also more blue than green in color. And it has a frosted glass faceplate instead of plastic.
I’m not surprised that the newer traffic lights are green - blue LEDs are more expensive, specially if you’re trying to reach a specific colour. Perhaps the switch prompted legislative organs to stop trying to interpret the old word through the newer, more restrict, meaning.
This reminds me a similar phenomenon in Portuguese - the so-called terra roxa “purple soil”, actually red:
The case is a bit messier as it likely involves calquing another Romance language that kept Latin rossus as “red”; likely Italian (terra rossa). But under-the-hood, it’s the same phenomenon as those Japanese drivers talking about blue traffic lights - a colour word changing meaning, but the fossilised usage still stuck there.
My wife still calls them aoi, but it’s just a normalized thing she grew up with. She uses green now in English.
ok but as a colourblind person those traffic lights are SO much better damn
then again maybe someone who is part blue colourblind might feel differently
I’m only guessing it, but based on this picture I think that cyan instead of green lights should be indifferent for people with tritanopia (no blue channel) or tritanomaly (weak blue channel) - because both should look the same anyway.
staring at this image trying to figure out the difference between deuteranomaly and normal vision before I remembered I’m an idiot
Green is just yellowish blue so.its ok