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I understand that the word for police box is Koban or 交番 in kanji, but why is
the signage always in roman letters - Koban.

My guess would be to make it easier for foreigners to read, but wouldn't they
just put the English word instead - "police box"?

Just wondering if anyway knows of a real reason for this.
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2018-08-20T23:36:09.683
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2018-08-21T12:23:14.877
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question
culture rōmaji
Why are police boxes labeled Koban (in roman letters) in Japan?
The answer is right on the 警視庁 (metropolitan police department)'s
[website](http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/about_mpd/shokai/pipo/webpb/koban_qa.html#cms6).

Basically it says that it is common to use foreign words as-is if there is no
similar cultural counterpart, using sumo and kabuki as examples. Koban is an
unfamiliar idea in most cultures, so that's why they decided to go with using
"koban" as is. The koban system has been introduced in the west.

They also make an effort to reinforce this on their [English
website](http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/multilingual/english/about_us/activity/koban.html).

While "police box" is often used as the closest translation, police boxes are
actually [very different from
koban](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_box), in both size and purpose.
The MPD probably wants to make this distinction. Also, not every Japanese
resident can think up the words "police box" and this can hinder communication
with a non-Japanese speaker; they would most certainly be able to point a lost
tourist to the nearest "koban".
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2018-08-21T01:06:50.760
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answer
I cant comment, but according to

[wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dban)

> The name kōban derives from the name of the earliest structure built in
> 1874, which were indeed simple boxes meant for standing watch (立番 tachiban)
> in rotation (交替 kōtai), thus creating a compound word consisting of kō (交)
> and ban (番).

Citied from
[here](http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/sikumi/kouban/kouban.htm)
([archived
version](https://www.webcitation.org/6AWrNjrFN?url=http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/sikumi/kouban/kouban.htm))
I added the wikipedia cite since, the original is only in japanese.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-21T09:57:40.613
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answer