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A rounded shape enclosing a cross.
Also known as: Hospital mark, Byōin symbol, Japanese hospital map symbol
The hospital symbol derives from the katakana of an old word for infirmary rather than from the red cross, and the GSI revised it in 2019 for foreign-visitor maps to a plain cross in a square — because the traditional form was not recognisable to visitors as a hospital at all.
Was supplemented in 2019 with an alternative — a cross within a square — for maps aimed at foreign visitors, after research found the traditional symbol was not read as a hospital by non-Japanese readers.
Contexts: Maps
Is not derived from the Red Cross emblem, whose use is restricted under the Geneva Conventions and is not a general hospital symbol.
Contexts: Maps
A rounded enclosing outline containing a cross-like figure, or in the 2019 alternative a plain cross within a square outline.