I don’t get it. Have you seen this Japanese sticker before on a car in the US?

Or, maybe you’ve seen this sticker…

In Hawaii (and in SoCal I hear), it seems that “cool” young dudes in the import car hot-rod scene think these Japanese stickers are da bomb! Maybe I’m an old fut, cause I don’t get it and I’m seeing more and more of these Japanese stickers on cars all the time. I’ve tried to pull along side one of these guys to ask him why he has this sticker on his car…of course he couldn’t hear me over the loud exhaust and hip-hop music blaring from his car.

Or maybe they don’t know the true meaning behind these stickers from Japan… (I’ll bet Japanese visitors in Hawaii look and laugh at these guys.) So what are these stickers? Well the first sticker, the green and yellow one, is used in Japan to designate a young, new driver. This sticker is known as “Shoshinsha” 初心者マーク（しょしんしゃマーク）or sometimes by “Wakaba” 若葉マーク（わかばマーク）. In Japan, this is one of those things that you certainly DON’T WANT to have on your car. Think of it as the Japanese equivalent to driving around with a big “STUDENT DRIVER” sign plastered on your car. Very cool dude!

A badge of honor - Only the smokin’ hot cars in Japan have these “new driver” stickers on them!

The brown and yellow sticker has a different meaning. In Japan, if you’re a senior citizen, you put this “Koreisha” 高齢者マーク sticker on your car as a way of telling other drivers, “I’m old, don’t bother me!”

So if anyone can tell me where they are getting these Japanese stickers, and WHY they’re putting them on their souped up import cars, please explain it to this old fut. There MUST be a good reason why these stickers are cool. Hey, maybe I need one of these brown and yellow Koreisha stickers for my car!

Posted by Netsato on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 2:57 pm.