Japanese Roadside Construction

So if you haven’t learned yet, Japanese seem to go over the top in a lot of things. There are a lot of things that Japanese do that I really like and a lot of things that don’t make sense. For example, take a look at this roadside construction site. If you study the picture carefully you will notice that there is a lot of things going on for a simple road repair.

I would like to start with the roadside statue dummy thingy. Not only does it light up and flash, the arm swings also. If this were in back in the U.S. there wouldn’t be any of them left because they would all be stolen, covered with paint balls, or run over by cars. Its pretty funny when we are driving down the road and see these things. There isn’t a traffic controller in the picture, but normally there is one there also.


If the roadside dummy doesn’t get your attention then the flashing light will. Japan is a fan of the deep fluorescent lights and this one happens to be used for roadside construction. Its there to say “HELLO, BE CAREFUL! THERE ARE TWO GUYS DIGGING A HOLE BEHIND ME.” I understand that they want to make the workers feel safe, but is it really necessary?

Then you have the cones and the signs, which are all good and probably the only necessary things, but hey why not the flashing light and dummy. I’m not bashing Japan. They probably have a lot less accidents than other countries do, but I think that it’s a little over the top. Feel free to disagree with me, but I thought I could let you know about what you might see while driving in Japan.