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I was driving the other day and saw a truck with 一般 written as 般一 on the
drivers side door. My wife was telling me that this is often the case with
trucks, where it is actually written from right to left in 縦 style, as if
there was only 1 row. Just was wondering if there was a particular reason for
it or if this is limited to just trucks or can this be found elsewhere.

Of note, it was _NOT_ written flipped so as to be seen correctly when looked
at through a mirror like ambulances and such in the U.S.

Note: This question is on the border in terms of being off-topic, but since it
is referring to language use within Japanese culture, I felt it was
appropriate to ask.

Examples of text  
<http://septieme-ciel.air-nifty.com/nikubanare/2005/09/post_5b58.html>
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Why are some words written backwards on trucks
For ambulances in police cars, I thinks it's often written in mirror on the
front of the vehicle.

For the side of the trucks, yes, this is quite common. It can also be found on
the billboard of restaurants, and on reprints of old beer posters.

This has a name: 右横書き. It was used before WWII, when horizontal writing was
applied to Japan during Meiji, but never really made it outside the corner
cases I just cited: left-to-right had more success.
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2011-10-31T02:56:13.953
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There are two different issues to consider here.

The first is right-to-left horizontal writing as explained by Axioplase.
(Note: Sometimes this is considered a special case of vertical writing, with
columns of height one as your wife suggested. This is not necessarily the
case. For example, the ー (choonpu) is always written horizontally rather than
vertically in these situations, which would indicate that the writing is
indeed "horizontal". But that's a side issue.)

**But I don't think that this is what you saw.** [edit: I overstated this
point. Right-to-left writing is obviously what you saw, but my point is that
there is a _reason_ for the right-to-left writing in this point, and it isn't
just "sometimes Japanese is written that way."] I think you saw a similar but
different phenomenon. I don't know the right phrase to google up a detailed
explanation, but think of the way that most flags have an obverse side (that
we all recognize) and a reverse side which is the mirror image of the obverse
side (so that the design nearest the flagpole stays nearest the flagpole even
when the flag is viewed from behind). The same principle is often applied to
writing on Japanese vehicles.

So, viewed from the left (passenger's side), it says 一般. The 一 is nearest the
front bumper, the 般 is further towards the back bumper. If you want to
maintain this state on the driver's side, you have to put the 一 on the
_right_. So you get 般一. I bet that if you had gotten a look at the passenger's
side of that truck, it would have said 一般 in regular order.

Put more simply, don't think of it in terms of "writing from left to right" vs
"right to left". Think of it as "writing from front of vehicle to back of
vehicle."
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Matt's answer is right enough, and Axioplases's description does have
historical accuracy, but I felt differently enough to propose another answer.

First, here is the truck in question, with the words `カンガルー便` written on the
side, "backwards".

![ooragnak](https://i.stack.imgur.com/KRjxY.jpg)

Note, though, that the text for the parent company, Seino, is the "right" way
round, presumeably because it's in romaji, which is not as flexible as
Japanese kanji and kana in terms of direction. If this were simply a matter of
viewing the car in a "front is top" concept, then why not also include the
romaji? It's only the Japanese text that is flexible enough about direction.

How flexible is Japanese in terms of direction? A little. The root of the
issue lies in the fact that Japanese text is traditionally written vertically.
The choice to go left or right when writing horizontally is, or was, therefor
somewhat arbitrary. Back in the day, one would have come across writing right
to left more than today, as in this old train sign:

![kyoto sign](https://i.stack.imgur.com/KW7Os.jpg)

Or how the car brand "Ford" is written `ドーォフ` (or `ドーオフ`) on this Taishō era
building:

![taisho era Ford factory](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cmtjJ.png)

Or in this awesome political map:

![political map](https://i.stack.imgur.com/iYbWC.jpg)

Note in all these pictures that the romaji offered goes left-to-right, but
both kanji and kana are right-to-left.

Why do these historical examples matter? Because it's evidence that there is a
cultural basis for accepting text right-to-left that makes the truck sign
possible in Japanese culture.

What I'm driving at is the contrast with English culture where the direction
of text is 100% locked in to be left to right. If a hypothetical delivery
company in an English country wrote "Yreviled Ooragnak" on the side of their
trucks, because they wanted to follow a "front is top" logic, or _any_ other
rational, no one would have any doubt they were doing something wrong. The
horizontal direction in English is non-negotiable, with the only exception
being deliberabe subversion of the norm in some kind of artistic context.

Of course, the massive exposure to English text has influenced textual
presentation in Japan, to the point where you don't see this much anymore. But
**it's not a rule** that writing must go left to right, and some people will
still go right to left, like this racist jerk here, who probably did it
precisely because he doesn't want to play by the west's rules (Just so its
clear, although the text direction supports my point, the content of this
jerk's sign is unredeemable, and I _strongly_ oppose the sentiment):

![racist jerk's sign](https://i.stack.imgur.com/7lgmj.jpg)

So the "backward" phenomena is not just about vehicles or flags, or a front-
as-top logic. Japanese text, insofar as it has escaped English cultural
hegemony, can be flexible about which horizontal direction it goes in. Why
exactly Seino opted to go right-to-left on the right side of their trucks, I'm
not sure, I just know that the option to do so existed for them because the
language permits it in a general sense.

Maybe right-to-left writing will die out, as it does seem to be the exception
these days. Or maybe not. Consider this nostalgic retro-branding of a biscuit
box, made available in 2014, preserving the right-to-left writing, for the
Japanese text only, to give an old-timey feel. Maybe one day a retro trend
will spark a revival...

![biscuits](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZB8zi.jpg)

What I'm pretty sure you won't see, though, is bottom-to-top. The text
direction is not _that_ flexible.
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It think it is to make it easier to read off a running car. When a person
staying still at a side of a road watches a car passing by, it is easier to
read if the letters run from the front of the car to the rear because the
letters will flow through the eyes of the person in the correct order. That is
why you see this more often with trucks that have longer body and longer
message rather than with shorter cars. If the characters were to be written
left right on the right side of a truck, a reader has to skim thourgh the
characters (moving their head) faster than the speed of the truck.
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2011-10-31T22:57:32.717
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On trucks and other vehicles I've mostly seen it written "backwards" on one
side and in the more common direction on the other side.

But to me the much more usual place to see such "backwards" writing is on the
traditional signs on traditional gates such as are or were part of castles,
city walls, etc.

(I quote backwards because one way of looking at Japanese writing is that it
doesn't have a correct direction, just a more common one, with the other also
being used.)
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