If you drive down a highway in Hokkaido or anywhere in Japan you'll inevitably come across the large road sign telling drivers to "Speed down". Clearly it's a safety message telling us to be more cautious on the road and not drive 20 km/hr above the speed limit (...don't look at me, everyone here does it!) The first time I saw the sign I chuckled to myself at the very obvious display of Engrish in public and thought, "Don't they mean 'Slow down'?". The more I thought about it, though, the more the term "Speed down" actually made sense.

Think about it: What's the meaning of "Slow down"?

If you want to decrease the speed of your car, then shouldn't it technically be "Slow up"? You do in fact want to increase how slow you are going, no? Also, wouldn't the opposite of "Speed up" be "Speed down"?! In order to capture the meaning of lowering the speed of an 80 km/hr car down to 60 km/hr, then "Speed down" actually does makes more sense. Engrish and poor translation may still be rampant throughout the country, but I think in this case, the Japanese got it right!