People tend to imagine the urban sprawl of Tokyo when envisioning Japan, but the country has a vast countryside as well, with places that can give the quaintest parts of the world a run for their money. One such place is the tiny island of Kimakajima. The picturesque island with nice beaches and a population that tends to hover around 2,000 has one unique feature — it’s the only place in Japan where there’s only one traffic light, and it only turns green once a year. For the other 364 days, the light is in a constant state of flashing yellow in the direction of the coastal road and flashing red on the road leading into Kakajima East Port. The reason is that the stop light was never intended to serve as any sort of traffic control. It was installed in 1994 at the request of the Kimaka Traffic Safety Association to help teach the island’s children how to follow traffic signals in case they move to a big city someday. Now, for one day in May, the light is set to turn green so the kids can practice using it properly and safely. Children congregate at the intersection to get a feel for the timing of it and practice looking right, left and right again before crossing the street.
