Whether it’s at the airport, train stations or even bus stations, the multilingual signs have always been a big help, especially to foreigners who are travelling. Some signs offer 3 or more languages but have you wondered why the signs at KL Sentral feature the Japanese language?
Of all the languages spoken in Malaysia, why was the Japanese language chosen for these signs? This has caused some confusion among locals but there’s actually a reason why this is the case.
The issue of the Japanese language being used for signs at KL Sentral was first brought up by a netizen named Bohari on Facebook earlier this week. He felt that the national language was less dignified, thus not being used for the signs. Another netizen, Mohd Ikmal, reposted the original post to explain the actual reason why the Kanji and Katakana writing are used for the signs instead of the Malay language.
According to Ikmal’s Facebook post, the Japanese language signs were installed as a way to show appreciation to a Japanese architect, Kisho Kurokawa. It was mentioned in the post that Kisho Kurokawa is the individual responsible for designing KL Sentral and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). This information is verified on the official KL Sentral website.
Apart from honouring the architect, it was also done to show appreciation to the Japanese government for their impact on the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Malaysia. “I can assume the original poster does not frequent KL Sentral and only learned about the signs recently. It’s not wrong for us to be concerned about these things, but don’t just spread these kinds of prejudicial posts on social media as if it only happened after Anwar Ibrahim became Prime Minister,” the netizen wrote.
Netizens reacted to Ikmal’s posts and while many understood the notion behind writing the signs in Japanese, they argued that the idea served no purpose as most locals do not really speak the language. Others felt that the argument was pointless as there was no need for anyone to get worked up over signs.
Regardless of opinions, it’s still good to learn that there was an actual reason for the Japanese Kanji and Katana characters being written on the signs at KL Sentral. Do you agree with the explanation?
Sources: Facebook (1)(2), KL Sentral
