What Color is the Sun?

Sometimes something as simple as color can illustrate interesting cultural differences. If I asked you what color the sun was, you might answer that it’s yellow, or orange, or white. However, many Japanese will tell you that it’s “red.” This seems to be a difference in cultural perception — the red circle in the Japanese flag is called hi-no-maru or circle-of-the-sun, and the Japanese “see” this color when they look at the sun. There are other cultural snafus you can encounter when dealing with colors. Westerners have eyes that are blue or green or hazel or brown, but if you ask a Japanese person what color their eyes are, they’ll always answer “black” since to their thinking, the center of the eye is what you’re asking about, not the iris. Then there’s the tradition of referring to certain shades of green with the word aoi, which means “blue,” which causes mass confusion among foreigners who can’t understand how green traffic lights could possibly be thought of as being blue.Little things like how colors are perceived can different from country to country.