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Two inverted red triangles on Japanese roads that require entirely different things of a driver.
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.
Both are inverted red triangles on Japanese roads and they require different actions of a driver.
Drawn from the visual attributes recorded for each symbol. Only traits the two records disagree about are listed.
| Trait | Japanese stop sign | Japanese slow sign |
|---|---|---|
| Symmetry | vertical | none |
| Japanese stop sign | Japanese slow sign | |
|---|---|---|
| Required action | Come to a complete stop. | Reduce to a speed allowing an immediate stop. |
| Outline | Inverted triangle. | Inverted triangle. |
| What distinguishes them | The wording, not the shape or the colour. | The wording, not the shape or the colour. |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Japanese slow sign — Both are inverted red triangles on Japanese roads and they require different actions of a driver. | Commonly confused with Japanese stop sign — The other inverted triangle in the schedule. |
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.
Convention on Road Signs and Signals (Vienna, 8 November 1968), consolidated text
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe · retrieved 2026-07-31
A treaty binding only on its contracting parties. It prescribes sign categories, shapes and colours and permits national variants within them; it does not describe the signage of non-signatory states, notably the United States. Cited for category and design prescription, never for the traffic law of a particular country.
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.
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.
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.