Photo/Illutration English text is seen on a sign at the recently installed Kodatsuno 2-chome Higashi traffic signal point in Kanazawa on Aug. 2. (Yota Kosaki)

KANAZAWA—Alarmed that foreign pedestrians were waiting seemingly forever for traffic signals to change color, Ishikawa prefectural police have installed English-language stickers that say, “Push button to cross street.”

Ishikawa is the first prefecture to provide such English labels for all of its 739 pedestrian push buttons, police said.

The stickers also feature drawings for visual comprehension.

The project stems from the March 2015 extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line to Kanazawa, which brought more non-Japanese tourists to this capital of Ishikawa Prefecture.

Many foreign nationals were seen waiting at crosswalks because they didn’t know about the pedestrian push buttons and believed the traffic lights would eventually turn green, the officials said.

On the proposal of a worker with the police department’s Traffic Control Center, English-language stickers were installed at 27 traffic signals near Kenrokuen garden and other major tourist destinations in 2017.

Tourist numbers plummeted during the novel coronavirus pandemic, but police stepped up their sticker work after border control measures were eased.

The work was completed at the end of March this year.

Sit Petterson, a 25-year-old university student from Denmark, was seen pushing a stickered pedestrian button in Kanazawa’s touristy Higashi Chaya district.

She said she thought the button was there for visually impaired people, and that she knew how it should be used. But she said the sign added some convenience.

English text was also added to a sign at the new Kodatsuno 2-chome Higashi traffic signal point installed in July, not far from the prefectural library.

“We hope to provide a safe and comfortable traffic environment for non-Japanese nationals to prevent accidents,” an official with the prefectural police’s traffic regulations division said.

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