In some Japanese supermarkets, you might come across signs IN ENGLISH, like "MEAT", "FRUITS", etc. I realized at my local AEON that they got the spelling for "DAIRY" wrong and there's a big sign that says "DAILY".
But it got me thinking. If these signs were in Japanese, what would they say? Because I asked my Japanese wife, and she seems unsure. The "Dairy" section of AEON has basically just milk, with cheese and butter kinda nearby but not really under the sign. The meat section has beef, pork, and chicken, so maybe in Japanese that would be "niku", but I'm not sure. My wife suggested the sign might say "calcium" in katakana if it were Japanese, or maybe "gyunyu" (milk) but I don't like that. It feels like there's no right answer.
Then I got to thinking about food groups in terms of a food pyramid. On a food pyramid, there's the "meat" section in English, but "niku" wouldn't work on a japanese food pyramid, would it? Is "fish" considered "niku"?
So with all that being said, my two part question is:
-
If you were designing Japanese supermarket signs for AEON to replace the English signs of "FRUIT", "VEGETABLES", "MEAT", "DAIRY", what would you call them?
-
If you were designing a food pyramid in Japanese, would it have the same names? Or would it be some broader, all encompassing term (like how we would say "starches" instead of "breads")
Bonus question: How the hell did a sign get through so many people, departments, and checks from a big corporation and still say "DAILY"?
by spikenzelda