Since Japan expects an increase in tourists ahead of the 2020 Olympics, the National Police Agency plans to replace the nation’s stop signs with versions considered more recognizable by foreign visitors. Also the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan has released a set of new standard symbols for foreign-language maps after criticism that some of its current pictograms are hard to understand or may be uncomfortable.
The most notable changes were made to religious places. The cross sign representing a church has been replaced by a simple symbol representing a church and the swastika sign representing Buddhist temples has changes to a pagoda. Because for most Westerners visiting Japan, the symbol looks Nazi Germany. For that changing, questions were raised a bit because the temples symbol is swastika, traditional one and not related Nazi. But since the changing will be made for foreigners, I think easy to understand is most important.
Here is another map symbol. Can you guess what it is? The right side is current symbol and the left side is new for foreign map. From the top, Hotel, Temple, Hospital, Police station, Post office, bank and convenient store. http://rensai.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/kigou.jpg And there is Japanese original symbols, to be honest with you, many of them are impossible to understand even for Japanese.
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