[via 70's Owners Club]
Koreisha mark
IN JAPAN
• The Koreisha mark is an orange and yellow teardrop-shaped statutory sign that is set up in the Road Traffic Law of Japan to indicate "aged person at the wheel".
• Its official name is "aged driver sign" (kōrei untensha hyōshiki).
• It also called "momiji mark" (autumn leaf mark).
• Some people call it "kareha mark" (dried leaf mark) or "Ochiba mark" (fallen leaf mark), but they are not pleasant words(for Japanese).
• The law decrees that when a person who is aged 70 and over drives a car and if his/her old age could affect the driving, he/she should endeavor to display this mark on both the front and rear of the car.
• Drivers aged 75 and over are obliged to display the mark.
• Conversely, the green and yellow shoshinsha mark or wakaba mark denotes new drivers.
• Both marks are designed to warn other drivers that the marked driver is not very skilled, either due to inexperience or old age.
OUTSIDE JAPAN
• Outside Japan, owners of Japanese classic cars have adopted this symbol, regardless of the driver's age.
• Japanese car enthusiasts overseas also use the Koreisha mark to indicate that they are an experienced driver as opposed to the Wakaba mark which indicates that they are new or a learner type driver.
Wakaba mark
IN JAPAN
• The Shoshinsha mark or Wakaba mark introduced in 1972 is a green and yellow V-shaped symbol that new Japanese drivers must display on their cars for one year.
• A driver must display this mark on the front and back of the car for one year after they obtain a standard driver's licence.
• This obligation is only for a standard license, not for motorcycles, large vehicles, special cars and so on.
• Drivers who consider themselves beginners may continue to display the sign, even after the period of a year.
• Its official name is The Beginner Drivers' Sign (shoshin untensha hyōshiki?).
• Conversely, the orange and yellow "Fukushi mark" or "Koreisha mark" denotes elderly drivers.
• Both marks are designed to warn other drivers that the marked driver is not very skilled, either due to inexperience or old age.
• The Shoshinsha mark is commonly seen on topics/tutorials targeted at beginners (whether it involves driving or not), having the meaning "For beginners" or "Beginners are welcomed".
OUTSIDE JAPAN
• The mark is also used as the logo for the imageboard software Wakaba written in Perl by Turku, Finland-based programmer Dag Ågren and by the imageboard index iichan whose indexed imageboards use Wakaba as their software package which also features a markup language called Wakabamark.
• The mark is also increasingly being used by JDM enthusiasts in other countries, such as Australia, the U.K and U.S.A. to show their passion and interest in JDM culture.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
