Japanese girls and the peace sign

[jinksys]

I notice that in alot of pictures that japanese girls often give the peace sign. What does it mean in japan and why do they do it so often?

thanks!

[Harisenbon]

It's V for Victory!

Yeah.. that's about it.
And it's not just girls. Boys and girls both do it.

[Alpha9]

When I was there, I asked them about it and most of them didn't even know what I was talking about (Peace I mean)

[jinksys]

But why do they do it when they get their picture taken?

[ozlizzard]

i was there for a while and asked some questions. it's seems to be just japanese girls being cute and it's contagious.

[Spaztick]

Yea, basically it's just a thing they do, like thumbs up here i suppose. They picked it up from (not suprisingly) WWII.

[SO_Rennish]

There are many reason, but mostly its because they saw americans doing it, so they decided to do it as well. Thumbs up and hang loose are also popular.

[jinksys]

Hang Loose? Ive never seen that hand sign.

[SO_Rennish]

Its like the thumbs up sign with the pinky sticking out.

[Spaztick]

Ya know, like this:

\m/ ^_^ \m/

[skrhgh3b]

just about anything western is trendy in the cities, so as you may have guessed, they picked up the hand gesture from us. it doesn't mean anything to them, though. it's just a popular pose to strike for the camera.

[Apollo]

Wow Americans are basic role models then? How interesting I never would've guessed since so many countries hate them. Thanks for posting that question I often wondered about that myself.

[nprz]

I would guess 90% of people in Japan make the victory sign (^-^)v
It is more funny when they do it after they win at something (and stick their tongue out

[Shibakoen]

Apollo, if Americans were truly hated everywhere CocaCola, Blue Jeans, and Brittany Spears wouldn't be as big as they are overseas. The fact is, in countries I've been to anyway, the people don't have any problem with Americans or even American culture. There are definitely people who think negatively of disrespectful tourists, polluting corporations, or, in the case of Japan specifically, disrespectful American soldiers. Here in the States we always blame Mexicans or Chinese or the French for one thing or another, but there's always aspects of their cultures that we like. I've never been to a country where I've been shunned because I am an American.

[Infidel]

SO_Rennish wrote:
There are many reason, but mostly its because they saw americans doing it, so they decided to do it as well. Thumbs up and hang loose are also popular.

They saw MacArthur doing it and picked it up from him. No other American has had so great a personal effect on Japanese culture. Not even Perry. Americans used the Victory sign a lot, especially when the Japanese were looking, in the aftermath of WW2.

It's best thought of as the Peace through superior firepower sign.