Did you know Japan's laundry care symbols were updated in August 2024? If you've been reading clothing labels the same way for years, a couple of things have changed. Our Symbols & Signs page is now up to date — here's what's new.
What actually changed
Honestly, it's not a huge overhaul — but the details matter if you care about your clothes.
- Hand wash at 30°C is now a thing — before, the only hand wash symbol was 40°C. The new 30°C version covers more delicate items like wool and silk.
- A new "no steam" iron symbol at low heat — low-heat ironing now has its own symbol for when steam could damage the fabric.
- Ironing temperatures went up slightly — low heat 110°C → 120°C, medium 150°C → 160°C, high 200°C → 210°C. Japan brought these in line with the international standard most other countries already use.
If your clothes say "iron at low heat," that now means up to 120°C — not 110°C. Small difference, but worth knowing.
We rebuilt the page while we were at it
The old page was a long table. It worked, but it wasn't great on a phone. So we redesigned it from scratch:
- Tabs at the top so you can jump straight to Laundry, Road Signs, or Vocabulary
- Category buttons for Washing, Bleach, Drying, Ironing, and Dry Clean
- Each symbol gets its own card — color-coded so you can tell at a glance what's OK (green), what's off-limits (red), and what needs care (blue)
- Most common symbols first — 40°C machine wash is at the top because that's what most people actually need
Road signs and vocabulary too
We added a few road signs that were missing — One Way (一方通行), Speed Limit 30 and 50, No Parking (駐車禁止), and No Stopping or Parking (駐停車禁止). Those last two look similar and mean very different things, so we added a short note to each one.
The vocabulary table also grew — from 5 words to 10, covering the signs you're most likely to actually see day-to-day.
→ Japanese Symbols & Signs — Laundry Symbols (JIS L 0001:2024) & Road Signs
— The Life Abroad Team