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An unqualified prohibition on passing, set against one that forbids only the manoeuvre that crosses the centre line.
The unqualified sign forbids overtaking outright. The qualified one forbids only overtaking that requires crossing the centre line, so passing within your own lane — a cyclist, a stopped vehicle — remains permitted. The distinction matters most on wide single carriageways where both manoeuvres are physically possible.
The qualified prohibition alongside this unqualified one.
Drawn from the visual attributes recorded for each symbol. Only traits the two records disagree about are listed.
| Trait | Japanese no overtaking sign | Japanese no overtaking by crossing the centre line sign |
|---|---|---|
| Built from | objects and circles | arrows and circles |
| Japanese no overtaking sign | Japanese no overtaking by crossing the centre line sign | |
|---|---|---|
| Overtaking within your lane | Forbidden. | Permitted. |
| Overtaking across the centre line | Forbidden. | Forbidden. |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Japanese no overtaking by crossing the centre line sign — The qualified prohibition alongside this unqualified one. | Commonly confused with Japanese no overtaking sign — The unqualified prohibition alongside this qualified one. |
道路標識、区画線及び道路標示に関する命令 (Order on Road Signs, Lane Markings and Road Markings)
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan · retrieved 2026-08-23
The Japanese road sign regulation. Cited for Japanese sign forms, several of which differ markedly from both the Vienna and the North American systems. Consulted in translation and through official English-language summaries.
Guide to Japanese road signs and markings for drivers
Japan Automobile Federation · retrieved 2026-08-27
A motoring organisation's driver-facing explanation of the sign schedule, used where it records how a sign is read in practice rather than how it is scheduled. Secondary: the Order is cited alongside it for anything the Order settles.
A reserved lane may be used only by buses and the vehicle classes named on the sign, throughout the hours shown. A priority lane may be used by anyone, but a driver in it must move out when a bus approaches. Both are marked in the carriageway and signed overhead, and the consequence of confusing them is that a driver either obstructs a bus or avoids a lane they were entitled to use.
The closed-to-all sign excludes every kind of traffic including people on foot. The no-vehicles sign excludes vehicles and leaves pedestrians free to pass. They share a disc and a red ground, so the difference has to be read from the device inside rather than recognised from a distance.
Both are inverted triangles with a red ground, and the shape carries no information about which is which — the wording does. One requires a full stop at the line; the other requires only a reduction to a speed from which the vehicle can stop immediately if needed. Japan is unusual in using the inverted triangle for a stop instruction at all, which is why drivers arriving from countries that use an octagon read the shape and not the text and get it wrong.
A surface of raised domes warns of a hazard ahead: a carriageway, a platform edge, the head of a stair. A surface of raised parallel bars guides along a route across an open area where no wall or kerb gives a line to follow. The bars are laid along the direction of travel, so the same panel turned ninety degrees means something else. A directional surface laid where a warning surface belongs invites a cane user forward into the hazard it should have stopped them at.