Today, it’s just me making a video by myself.

今回はニュースでも取り上げられた話題ですが、

And I have another issue that’s in the news

日本の国土地理院（通称GSI）が、

to talk to you guys about.

外国人向けの地図で使用する地図記号を新たに作ることを決めました。

You may have heard of it.

「いや、地図記号なんてどうでもいいんだけど...」という方もいるかと思いますが

If you have not,

変更前の記号の一つに、興味深いものがあります。

the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan,

実は以前からその記号について動画を作ろうと思っていたのですが、今が丁度いいかなと。

a.k.a. GSI,

まず、今回の件の背景には

which is essentially just Japan’s, like, map makers,

2020年の東京五輪があり、外国人訪問者に配慮した対応の一環でもあります。

have released a new set of icons to be used

日本人向けの地図記号には、外国人には分かり辛いものもあります。

on Japanese maps for foreigners.

そこで、ここ数年にわたり留学生、大使館職員、海外旅行者などにアンケート調査などを行い

And you may be wondering, like,

外国人旅行者向けの地図記号を考案してきました。

“I don’t care, Rachel. Why do I care?”

会議室だけで作られたわけではなく、

At least one of the symbols that they’re changing

外国人旅行者を混乱させないために、生の声を聞き入れて考えられています。

is kind of controversial in a way.

検討会資料のリンクを張っておきますので、ご覧になりたい方はどうぞ。

And I was going to talk to you guys

詳細に書かれていますが、全て日本語です...

about it at some point,

記号だけであれば、見るだけである程度わかると思いますが。

and I figured, now is as good a time as ever.

例えばこれはホテルを示しますが、

So, to give you guys little a bit of background

病院（Hospital）やヘリポートなどと混同する外国人もいるでしょう。

on why they’re doing this,

私とか。

Japan is hosting the Olympics in 2020,

記号は何度も検討されていますが、

so they’ve really been trying

最新のものでは、この記号と比較検討し

to globalise the country more

全体では61%が記号案2の方がわかり易いと感じています。

and make it more foreigner-friendly.

対して、記号案１は全体の18%がわかり易いと回答。

Some of the symbols that they use on maps

記号案2の採用を検討中です。

right now are very Japanese-specific.

次の記号は、おそらく外国人にとって一番分かりにくいモノの1つだと思いますが、

So, one thing that they’ve been doing

交番で、だたのXです。

over the past couple of years is,

私の最初の印象は

they‘ve been conducting surveys and interviews

「.....宝箱？」でした。

of foreigners, who are, like, exchange students, or

交番だとは皆目見当がつきませんでした。

people who work at embassies here

私がバカなだけかもしれませんが...

or even just tourists.

4% のみが記号案1を選び、

And they’ve been showing them several different

27%が記号案2、

symbols on the Japanese maps and asking them

33%が記号案3がよいと回答しています。

how easy it is to understand them.

コメントで各人の意見を見ることができますが

And so, that’s where they’ve come up with

スウェーデンの方は、「Xでは意味が不明である」

these new symbols that they just released.

ドイツからは「案2の方が良いが難しい」

They didn’t just make it out of nowhere

郵便局の記号も変更しています。

and be like, “These are the symbols we’re picking!”

元はカタカナの「テ」を丸で囲ったような記号ですが、

They’ve actually been doing a lot of work and research,

日本独特です。

trying to figure out what the absolute best symbols

そこで、手紙になりました。

would be for foreigners.

コメント欄には、「日本を訪れたことが無いと分かりにくいと思う」等があります。

You can find the whole report on their website,

そして、次が１番話題になっている記号です。

and I’ll link to it down below

新しい変更案はわかり易いと思いますし、役立つと思いますが

if you guys want to check it out.

ちょっと興味深いです。

They go into great detail on everything they have done.

この記号です。

Obviously, it’s in Japanese,

ご存知の方も多いと思いますが、

so if you don’t speak Japanese,

もともと、まんじはヒンドゥー教や仏教で用いられる、吉祥の印で

you can still understand some of it just by looking

他の意味でも使われましたが、非常に歴史が古いです。

at the pictures and numbers and stuff.

ですから、ヒトラーがナチス旗に採用(?)する何千年も前から使われていました。

So, for example, one symbols that Japan

しかし、西洋圏では仏教やヒンドゥー教がそれほど普及していないので、

has traditionally been using on their maps is

まんじに詳しくありません。

an H in a circle, which stands for “hotel”.

日本には数多くの寺院があり、日本人がまんじ記号を見て受ける印象は仏教関連で、

However, for a lot of foreigners, we may

ナチスではありません。

see that as something like “hospital”,

しかし、私達はナチスを連想します。

or, for me personally, “helicopter pad”!

しかし、日本で地図を開いてみれば、あちこちに卍を見かけます。

That’s what I imagined.

でも、馴染みの薄い外国人は混乱するかもしれません。

They have conducted several levels of surveys,

ただ、個人的にこの記号の変更には、ちょっと悔しく感じます。

but the most recent survey

なぜなら、この記号には非常に長い歴史と重みがあるのに変更を余儀なくされるなんて、

they showed the original symbol plus a new one,

なんだかナチスに負けてる気がするからです。

which shows a person sleeping in a bed with a lamp,

西洋圏での卍の印象を最悪なものにされたのが、何だか悔しいのです。

and asked,

個人的には、卍記号はそのまま変更しないでくれたら嬉しいです。

“Which one of these is more understandable

外国人訪問者に文化の違いを伝える良いチャンスだと思います。

as meaning a ‘hotel’?”

ナチスからシンボルを取り戻す好機です。

And overall 61% of people said,

でも、仏教・ヒンドゥー教に馴染みが無い外国人の為であるのは良くわかります。

the person sleeping in a bed is a much easier

日本中の卍記号に「これはナチスとは無関係で、仏教の記号である」と書いたところで

symbol to understand, whereas only 18% of people

全ての訪問者に伝わる訳ではありません。

said, “Oh yeah, I can get ‘hotel’ from the H in a circle.”

私の名前も正確に伝える事すら難しいようですから。

Still, the little sleeping man symbol is the one

このチャンネル名なんですけどね...

of the new symbols that they are proposing be used.

何事も全ての人に教えるのは無理です。

Another symbol, probably one of the most difficult

でも、試して損はないと思います。

symbols for non-Japanese people to understand,

後は結果を待つだけですが、まだ確定ではありません。

is the original police box symbol in Japan.

今年中に、外国人向けの地図に採用されるものが公表されるそうです。

It’s just an X.

因みに、これらの地図記号改定は外国人向けの地図のみです。

So, if we saw an X on a map,

記号は18種類を検討中で、

I would think, like, “Treasure?

他にも表記に関する地図表現も検討しています。

Is there a buried treasure here, or something?”

例えば神社の表記だと

I wouldn’t really know what it was.

例えば、「〇〇jinja - shrine」とするか、

Actually, I didn’t even know, this was a police box symbol, so

「〇〇 - shrine」それとも「〇〇 - jinja」とするか、等々。

I guess I suck at living in Japan

とにかく、わかり易さを向上するために非常に注力しているようです。

because… I never learnt that.

報告書を見れば分かりますが、結構な仕事量だと思いますし

Here you can see that only 4 % of people said,

ナチス連想などの問題もありますが、多くの訪問者が感謝すると思います。

they understand an X, whereas they have a little

とりわけ、オリンピック観光に来る旅行者には。

sheriff star. 27 % of people said that was okay.

皆さんの意見もお聞かせ下さい。

And then, like, a little police officer, and

特に卍記号について

33 % said that was the most easily understable symbol.

色々意見を聞かせてください。

One thing they have done is write down comments,

では、また次回。

so, of course, they have a more complete understanding

ご視聴ありがとうございました。

of why people voted the way they did.

So, for this police box symbol,

someone from Sweden said, “X makes no sense.”

Someone from Germany said, “No. 2 is better,

but it’s kind of complicated.

Another one of the symbols they are changing

is the symbol for postbox.

And the symbol for “postbox” here is the katakana “te”

in a circle, which we obviously don’t use abroad.

So, they have proposed changing it to just a letter.

Most people make comments like, “Foreigners who

haven’t been to Japan aren’t going to understand

the symbol.” Which I also think is true.

So, let’s move on to the number one symbol

that people are debating right now.

Whereas all the other symbols, that they are proposing

changing, I completely understand the new symbol

that they have proposed, and I think, honestly,

a lot of those will really help foreigners

who are coming here.

This symbol is debatable.

And that would be the ‘swastika’.

I’m sure most of you know this,

but if you don’t, the swastika was originally

a Hindu-Buddhist symbol.

It may have been used for other things even before that,

but it’s thousands and thousand of years old.

So, this is a very, like, sacred, religious symbol

that has been around for a long time

before it was adopted by Nazis, and, then,

like, the whole image of it was completely destroyed.

But whereas in the West, we don’t have a lot

of Buddhism and Hinduism,

so we’re not familiar with that history of the swastika,

here in Japan there are a lot of Buddhist temples!

And a lot of Japanese are personally Buddhists,

so they are extremely familiar with the symbol

and if they see the swastika, their first thoughts

are going to Buddhism and not to Nazism,

like a lot of foreigners’ would.

If you have been to Japan and you have used

Google Maps to look up temples to go to,

you’d have seen this symbol all the time.

Sometimes you’ll actually

see it at the temples themselves.

And so, if you are not familiar with it,

some foreigners can get confused and

maybe kind of… offended?

But this is the one symbol that I personally…

I think it’s really sad that they would have to change

this symbol because it has such an intense

religious history to it!

I mean… I feel like we are losing

to the bad guys, like, why should

the Nazis still be winning at something?

It’s not fair that they took the symbol

and then made it something horrible.

I would prefer that they left it as a swastika

because if a foreigner comes to Japan

and they don’t know what it is,

then that is a really good opportunity

to educate them about it.

And that way we don’t have to

lose the symbol to the Nazis.

I can understand why they would want to

change it for foreigners who don’t know about

Buddhism or Hinduism.

Because even if you put a huge sign

at every swastika in Japan that says,

“This is a Buddhist symbol!

It’s a sacred symbol that has

been around for 2,000 years.

It has nothing to do with Nazism, or anything”,

you’re still not going to teach everyone about it.

I mean, you guys probably spell my name incorrectly

more often than correctly,

and it’s the name of our channel!

So, there’s no way to teach everyone something.

But still, I don’t think it would hurt to try.

And either way, you know, it’s their decision to make,

and none of these symbols have actually

been finalised yet.

These are still just the proposed symbols.

So, it will be later this year that they actually

make the announcement, which symbol, for sure,

they will be adding to maps for foreigners.

And, by the way, these are all just symbols

that they are changing for maps for foreigners.

They are not using these on maps for

Japanese people yet.

All in all, they have proposed 18 new symbols

for foreigners, and they have also looked at

things like how they should spell things

on maps to make it more easily understable.

So, for example, they are trying to figure out

the best way to label a shrine.

The word for “shrine” in Japanese is “jinja” (神社).

So, they have been saying, “Should I call it, like,

a ‘jinja’ and shrine? Or should I just call it

shrine? Should I just call it ‘jinja’?”

So, they have really been doing their due diligence

on conducting research to figure out, what the absolute

best way to label maps for foreigners is.

And I give them a hand for that

because that’s a lot of work that goes into that.

So, I think they have been doing a really great job

Despite of how controversial some of these changes

are, I understand what they are doing

and I appreciate all the work they are putting into it.

And I do think it will be helpful for

new foreigners, who will be coming into the country,

who don’t have a lot of background knowledge

about Japan, especially as we get closer

to the Olympics.

So, anyway…

Let me know what you guys think about these

new symbols, and especially what you think about

the swastika because that’s kind of the big one here…

I’m still kind of hoping that they might leave

the original one.

But I understand both sides to this, so…

Anyway, thanks for watching guys,

I’ll see you later!

Bye!

“If you have ever been to Kyōto,”

“you have probably noticed these things”

“up against a lot of the shop walls.”

“But just what are they?”

“The most common, widely known usage,”

“which they are named after,”

“was traditionally to prevent…”