“Why Do Japanese Use Circle = Correct & Tick = Incorrect?”

The question of why the Japanese perversely mark correct answers with a circle rather than a tick, as any sane person would do, and then insist on compounding their deviance by using ticks to indicate incorrect answers, has lately been the subject of much attention on 2ch.

The initial exchange (translated from the original English into Japanese, and subsequently presented to 2ch):

“Tell me this – one of the things about Seto I don’t get is this picture. Putting a tick by the correct answer is the world standard, isn’t it?”

“It’s called a ‘check’ you moron.”

“Typical fucking yank who thinks that’s the only name it’s called?”

“In Japan the correct answer gets the circle and the check or x is for wrong answers.”

“The circle is for wrong answers. I think this is the same everywhere.”

“Why is Japanese culture so backwards? The check is for correct answers, the cross or circle for incorrect ones, everyone knows this.”

“What do you expect from a country which insists porno puts mosaics on genitals alone? I’ll never accept anything they do as logical.”

“It depends on your teacher, idiots.”

“In my country you get circles on your mistakes and nothing on the correct ones.”

“In Japan a circle is a correct answer and a tick is an incorrect answer. What part of this do you people not understand?”

2ch is incensed about barbarians daring to comment on Yamato culture:

“Well, you wouldn’t expect a bunch of hairy foreigners to understand something like this.”

“Japan is so backwards! We should match the world standard!”

“What? Since when did incorrect answers get a check mark? Japanese put an ‘x’ by incorrect answers.”

“Yes yes, everything our white masters say is true and correct!”

“Those foreigners don’t know what they are talking about…”

“How nice it is to see how understanding these people are of other cultures.”

“Japan is on a OX system, fucking foreign scum.”

“Foreign games have x for OK and circle for cancel – that’s even stranger.”

“They are just watching pirated anime anyway.”

“I don’t want to be told my culture is backwards by a bunch of people who are busy pirating it.”

“Dumb whities, just because Japan is different doesn’t mean it’s a global standard.”

“‘What do you expect from a country which insists porno puts mosaics on genitals alone?’ – GRRR.”

“They think they are always right!”

“Japan should change. I don’t get why a tick means incorrect.”

“They are just too stupid to understand cultural differences.”

“Foreigners are like frogs in a well [ignorant of the ways of the world]. Foreigners need to adopt a more global perspective.”

“Ah, this lot are just like you guys. I bet they don’t want to be told how their culture should be by you lot either. You hate them because they’re the same as you.”

“I don’t want to be told this stuff by people who insist on using Fahrenheit, yards, pounds or whatever other Galapagos standards it is they use.”

“The mosaic stuff in porn is based on the notion that because you can’t see their genitals they are not actually having sex. It’s retarded. The Motion Picture Code of Ethics Committee needs to be abolished.”

“I’ll admit the mosaic stuff is messed up. Doesn’t matter how perverse it is, as long as it has the mosaic it’s not obscene? Abolish it.”

“Foreigners are always trying to push their culture on others. Japan hasn’t done that since the war.”

“I first became aware of this difference when I took a simple overseas training test. At first I was like ‘yay, I got them all right!’…”