After the 2011's catastrophic disaster in eastern Japan, every place in Japan dealt with strengthening the resilience of the land. In the Nagahama area in Ozu City, in which my office is located, is also one of those places. The city authorities made the banks higher and raised up the position of the iconic bridge of Nagahama, Akabashi, along with the banks. I heard of its completion and I went and saw it during lunch break today.
To no one's surprise now, there were some weird signs on the bridge, one of which is shown below. It is for bicycle riders and must be noticeable from moving bicycles. However, what do you think about the legibility of this sign. The Chinese and Korean signs shouldn't be written here, because it makes the visibility worse and at the same time it's impolite to people from other countries but China and Korea. It's the response to the immigrants', mainly from China and Korea, urge to display their words and phrases in Japanese society. However, Japanese and English are enough on such roadsigns.
Now, in Japan, more and more people began hating Chinese and Koreans due to their selfish behaviour. What became of this cause of exclusion of Koreans and Chinese in Japan?
(Vocabulary)
deal with sb/sth <…>に対処[対応]する
Don't worry, I'll deal with this. 大丈夫ですよ.私が対処しますから.
resilience 立ち直る力, 回復力;(ゴムなどの) 弾力性 [同意] flexibility
noticeable〈影響・違い・変化などが〉目立つ, 目をみはらせる, 際立った, 著しい
legibility(筆跡などの)読みやすさ.
readability (本・雑誌などの) おもしろさ, わかりやすさ; 読みやすさ, 可読性
visibility 目につきやすいこと, 視認性
act on the public urge to ~せよという一般人の要求に迎合する
adjust one's opinions and behavior to please (人)に迎合する
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