Elderly drivers will need to display a newly designed four-leaf clover sticker on their cars instead of the current autumn leaf symbol, which is unpopular for suggesting dead leaves, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
The cloverleaf sticker has segments in yellow-green, green, yellow and red-orange with an embedded S for senior, against the conventional yellow and orange teardrop.
Its use will begin by the end of this year, but the current design can also be used during the transition period, agency officials said.
Under a road traffic law regulation to be revised for the new sticker, drivers aged 70 or older will be required to make efforts to display them on both the front and rear of their car in cases in which their age affects their driving.
Elderly drivers numbered some 6.26 million as of the end of 2009, the officials said.
Mikio Matsuyama, a 31-year-old graphic designer in Osaka who created the sign, said it is colored yellow-green and green to suggest youthfulness and yellow and red-orange to imply a rich knowledge of life.
The NPA received 14,573 designs for the new sticker.
