投入禁止

Years ago I bought a bunch of this types of signs from the dollar store for Christmas presents and souvenirs for my family and friends. Many of them were signs for トイレ or お手洗い (おてあらい) words for toilet and washroom. I thought they were pretty funny and wish I bought more of them, yet I still had this one, still in the package, which I had forgotten about until I recently packed all my things and moved to Colorado and found it in the bottom of a drawer.

It is another strange one that after learning the translation, like me, you'll say to yourself, "A, duh! Who needs a sign for that?"

火気 (かき) - Fire things, traces of fire

等 (など) - Etc.

の - Possessive particle

危険 (きけん) - Dangerous 

物 (もの) - Things

投入 (とうにゅう) - Throwing into, inserting

禁止 (きんし) - Stop, don't do it, forbidden

Translation: Throwing dangerous things on fire is forbidden.

As you can read, why would you need a sign telling you not to throw objects on fire? Well, maybe in a warehouse with lots of dirty rags and old oil, or a workshop with lots of flammable wood or paint cans. But again, if you work in one of those places you should know not to do that, yet maybe visitors don't know, but why are visitors showing up smoking cigarettes and lighting matches???

The world is chaotic and people's actions are mysterious, so Japan has decided to put up signs as a way to cover their bases for all the things that can happen, because they're right, they probably will happen. So it is better to remind everyone that these actions are だめ！Not allowed!

Do you have signs at home, work or in your community that makes you say, "Who needs to be reminded of that?"

Back in Indiana they put up a billboard that said, "Don't trash our city. Put it in the can.", as a way to tell people to stop littering. There was a real problem of people throwing trash into the street, so they had to put up signs to tell them to stop, which to me is, "Everyone should know that." But, I guess they don't.

If you have a story like this, please tell it in the comments. And if you want to write it in Japanese, that would be awesome too!

それは、以上です。Bye-bye 👋

ジョシュア