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.
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.