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An inverted red triangle bearing the word for stop.
Also known as: Tomare sign, Japan stop triangle
Japan's stop sign is an inverted red triangle rather than the octagon used almost everywhere else. It is one of very few national exceptions to what is otherwise the most internationally standardised sign shape in existence.
Requires a full stop, drawn as a downward-pointing red triangle carrying the Japanese word for stop.
Contexts: Road signage
Is one of a very small number of national exceptions to the octagonal stop sign, which is otherwise near-universal.
Contexts: Road signage
Has been supplemented since 2017 with the English word STOP on many signs, for the benefit of foreign drivers.
Contexts: Road signage
Is regularly confused with the slow-down sign, which shares its inverted-triangle outline and its red ground and requires something entirely different of a driver. This sign requires a full stop; the other requires a reduction in speed, and the distinction is carried by the wording rather than by the shape.
Contexts: Road signage, Public information
A triangle standing on one point, filled red, carrying two large white characters across its centre.
Both are inverted red triangles on Japanese roads and they require different actions of a driver.
One country's exception to a near-universal shape.