Gaimen practice questions

Japanese road signs: meanings and common lookalikes

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Recognize the sign, understand what it means, and decide what to do. These 14 schematic examples focus on signs that are easy to confuse when studying Japanese driving rules.

Read the whole sign

Check the main sign together with any supplementary plates. Plates may specify times, vehicle types, exceptions, or where a restriction starts, ends or continues. Read the wording and arrows for that sign assembly.

Source Kanagawa Prefectural Police — road signs (English)

Stop and slow: both are inverted triangles

Read the characters as well as the shape. 止まれ means stop; 徐行 means slow. A slow sign does not replace a required stop.

Source Tokyo Metropolitan Police — stop and slow signs (English)

Access restrictions: bar, slash or cross?

The white bar restricts entry from the direction you face. A red slash on a white field closes the road to vehicles. A red cross on a white field indicates a road closure. Do not confuse that white field with the blue field of the no-stopping-or-parking sign.

Source National Police Agency — traffic rules and road signs (English PDF) · Kanagawa Prefectural Police — road signs (English)

Directions: one way is different from straight only

A rectangular one-way sign tells you the permitted direction of travel along a road. A circular straight-only sign limits the direction you may proceed. Both examples below show an upward arrow; the surrounding shape matters.

Source Kanagawa Prefectural Police — road signs (English)

Parking and stopping: one slash or a cross?

Both signs have a blue field and red border. One red slash means no parking; a red cross means no stopping or parking. A short stop is not automatically lawful just because you see the single-slash sign. Other rules and supplementary plates still apply.

Source Kanagawa Prefectural Police — road signs (English)

Blue circle with a red ring and red cross.

No stopping or parking

駐停車禁止

Both stopping and parking are prohibited.

What to do: Do not pull over to wait, park, load or unload here.

This does not tell you to ignore a red light or an unavoidable stop for safety.

Source Kanagawa Prefectural Police — road signs (English)

Speed and height limits: read the number

Warnings: prepare for the hazard ahead

These yellow diamonds warn about the road ahead. A crossroads warning does not grant priority or, by itself, require a stop. Prepare for the hazard and follow the signs, markings and traffic conditions at the location.

Source MLIT — road-sign chart (PDF) (in Japanese) · e-Gov — Ordinance on Road Signs, Road Markings and Road Surface Markings (in Japanese)

Yellow diamond containing a black cross.

Crossroads ahead

＋形道路交差点あり

A crossroads lies ahead.

What to do: Look for crossing traffic and be ready to respond safely.

Source MLIT — road-sign chart (PDF) (in Japanese)

Yellow diamond with two black road edges narrowing inward toward the top.

Road narrows

幅員減少

The road becomes narrower ahead.

What to do: Adjust your speed and position for the narrower road. Do not assume you have priority.

This is a width warning, not the lane-reduction sign.

Source MLIT — road-sign chart (PDF) (in Japanese)

Try the signs-and-markings drill

Use the pictures above as a lookup, then test yourself with the existing five-question drill. The reference adds no new quiz questions.

Try the five free signs-and-markings questions

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Sources

Sign meanings and forms were checked against these official references. The illustrations on this page are original schematic drawings, not reproductions supplied by these authorities.