What's with the peace sign?!

[sea monster spit]

I see it everywhere and somehow cannot get an answer as to why the Japanese make the 'peace' sign in a lot of photos. D;

 

[nice gaijin]

There are a few explanations of how the gesture seeped into Japanese culture, several of which I found were in this thread:

Thread 'The V sign'

14 Mar 2003

This week's Vox populi at JT is really interesting. Have you ever wondered why the Japanese make the V sign when being photographed? I did, and my wife could never explain that habit to my full satisfaction. Oh, they refer to it as "the peace sign".



A genetical explanation:

Seiichi Igeta, 17

"I make the peace sign, but I don't know why I do it, who invented it and when we started doing this. I think I've been doing it since I was born. The peace sign gesture must have been programmed in my DNA, or foreigners mind-controlled Japanese to make the peace sign subconsciously when we...

• thomas
• Replies: 24
• Forum: All Things Japanese

• 

 

[Supervin]

I kinda like the 'V' sign actually... probably due to my name.

 

[sea monster spit]

There are a few explanations of how the gesture seeped into Japanese culture, several of which I found were in this thread:

mm, thanks. i'll check it out XD

 

[yamada]

In photos taken in early '70s when I was a kid, I made no V signs.

 

[Damicci]

How do you count fingers in Japanese?
'hon'
2 fingers = NIHON no yubi 2本の指
nihon = Japan
Mystery solved.

 

[Kyoko_desu]

Haha, yeah, they are confusing.
But when they are written, you can see the difference, right?
And when they are spoken, you can also tell the difference by the intonation.
The accent(stress) is on the first syllable on ２本, and it's on the second syllable on 日本.
Oops, this is not a language thread.