In Japan, red light typically means “stop” while green light typically means “go.” Just like in many other countries around the world! So if you’re ever caught at a Japanese traffic light, be sure to remember which color corresponds to which action.
How Do You Say Red Light in Japanese
If you want to say “red light” in Japanese, you would say “akai tsuki.” This literally means “red moon,” but is used to describe stop lights as well. You might hear this phrase used in casual conversation, or see it written on street signs.

Credit: www.japantimes.co.jp
How Do You Say Green Light Red Light in Japanese?
There are two ways to say “green light, red light” in Japanese. The first is “aoi hikari, akairo,” and the second is “midori no hikari, akai no hikari.” Both are correct, but the former is more commonly used.
How to Play Daruma-San Ga Koronda?
Daruma-san ga koronda is a Japanese game that is similar to the Western game of tag. The object of the game is to avoid being caught by the person who is “it.” The game is played with two or more people.
To start the game, one player is chosen to be “it” and stands in the middle of the playing area. The other players then line up at one end of the playing area. When everyone is ready, “it” calls out “Daruma-san ga koronda!” and everyone starts running towards the other end of the playing area.
The player who is “it” tries to catch as many people as possible while everyone else tries to avoid being caught.
If a player is caught, they become “it” for the next round and play continues until only one player remains uncaught. That player becomes the winner.
What The Doll Says In Squid Game | 무궁화 꽃이 피었습니다 (Hint – It's NOT Red Light Green Light!)
Conclusion
The Japanese language has a unique way of expressing the concepts of “red light” and “green light.” The word for “red light” is akairo, while the word for “green light” is midori.
Interestingly, these words are not actually derived from the colors themselves.
Rather, they come from the Chinese characters that are used to represent those colors. In Chinese, the character for red is associated with danger, while the character for green is associated with safety.
This same system of using different characters to represent different concepts extends to other words in Japanese as well.
For example, the word for blue (ao) comes from a character that represents the sky, while the word for yellow (ki) comes from a character that represents the sun.
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