Station name sign on platforms not consistent?

[Sacto1985]

One thing I've noticed about station name signs at platforms on various JR Group stations is they don't seem be consistent in the use of Japanese characters on those signs.

 

I've seen examples where the largest letters on the signs are written in kanji, and I've seen examples where the largest letters on the signs are written in hiragana. Of course, the romanji letters on the signs are usually the smallest....

 

Is this because often the kanji name may have more than one pronunciation in Japanese?

[miyakoji]

Yeah, this is true.  I was acclimated to JR West signage and then I saw JR Central or JR East, I was a little surprised.  Why it varies I have no idea; presumably it was consistent in the JNR days, but maybe not.  At some stations I think some signs will have the kanji in large font in the center while others will have hiragana in that position.

[bikkuri bahn]

Apparently primary hiragana signage was standard in early JNR days (presumably so anybody including young elementary school age children could read them), but according to one account, this changed when the Tokaido Shinkansen was built.  Shinkansen stations primarily used kanji as the main font, as the initial clientele on those trains were well-heeled customers who previously patronized the limited expresses*, requiring a more "adult" image. Over time this spread to other stations.  Also, the hiragana fonts were getting old and dated, so rather than come up with new ones, they switched to kanji.

 

*I remember even in the late 70's a ride on the shinkansen was considered a rather rare occasion for the average Joe or Takeshi, certainly so for school age children.

[Sacto1985]

Actually, I'm talking current JR Group station platform signs. I've seen examples where the largest lettering is in either Kanji or Hiragana.

 

Interestingly, on private railways, the largest letters on platform signs are often in Hiragana. I've seen pictures of Hankyu Railways signage at their big stations in the Osaka area and it's printed that way.

[miyakoji]

Right, so the variation is due to hiragana being the older way of writing it, with the other way, kanji being central, also existing thanks to the influence of the shinkansen and its 'higher end' image.

 

Naturally I can't find it, but I've seen a picture taken on the platform at Ofuna when Japanese soldiers were returning home after the war, and you can see that not only is the name written right-to-left, but the hiragana is (if I recall correctly) ohofuna rather than oofuna.  I know Japanese writing has changed a few times, that must be an example.  Also, at Tsuwano Station, a platform sign reads right-to-left in hiragana, and 'no' is written with 乃 rather than の.

[Sacto1985]

Naturally I can't find it, but I've seen a picture taken on the platform at Ofuna when Japanese soldiers were returning home after the war, and you can see that not only is the name written right-to-left, but the hiragana is (if I recall correctly) ohofuna rather than oofuna.  I know Japanese writing has changed a few times, that must be an example.  Also, at Tsuwano Station, a platform sign reads right-to-left in hiragana, and 'no' is written with 乃 rather than の.

 

That old sign you remember from the picture was probably produced before the Japanese language script reforms that started to happen during the Allied Occupation of the country after World War II. That's why the characters on that very old sign read right to left, not to mention using different characters, too. With the reforms after the war up till 1985, that's why station platform signs done since 1946 read left to right, not to mention using modern kanji characters such as the current list of 2,997 characters approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education as of 2010. In fact, I'd hazard to guess that the name of Banshū-Akō Station (播州赤穂駅)--the west end of probably one of the longest commuter rail lines on JR West's Osaka-area Urban Network from JR Osaka (Umeda) Station--would use totally different kanji characters and written right to left before 1946.

[bikkuri bahn]

You have to remember, Japan's railway system is not some government monolith with standardization throughout (like some European systems)- each JR group Railway has its own standards with regards to signage, colors, styles, etc. This is further compounded by local influences, as cities have a say in signage and the image they want to project, which often begins with the gateway to their community, which is likely the railway station. Even the lines themselves often have some quirk from their history that creates some non-standard feature.  With the sheer number of stations, and local traditions and practices, you get the lack of standardization.  Anyway, it's not a safety-critical issue, so the fact that one station sign is in hiragana and others are in kanji probably doesn't bother the station manager.

 

Regarding Banshu Ako station, it was established in 1951, and as the name Ako was already applied to a station on the JNR Iida Line in Nagano Prefecture, the old region name of western Hyogo prefecture "Banshu" was added.

[miyakoji]

here we go: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Train_station_signs_in_Japan