I have a soft spot for the OK Taxi company, even though I don’t have many opportunities to ride in their cars. I first became interested in them because the order of the letters on their cars’ right sides is from right to left. In Japan, writing from right to left has become fairly rare, except on vehicles – where horizontal writing often starts at the front of the car and goes to the back. This front-to-back approach means that horizontal writing on the left side of cars and trucks proceeds from left to right but that the writing goes from right to left on the opposite sides of the cars. If you don’t read Japanese, you might not notice this on the cars and trucks you see in Kumamoto but the OK Taxi company makes it obvious for English speakers by following the custom when they paint the letters “OK TAXI” on their cars. I thought this might be a tradition that was on it’s way out but the other day I was happy to see that the company is continuing to follow this writing style on their newer hybrid cars.
The third picture you see is from the following Japanese newspaper article:
http://www.sankei.com/economy/news/160416/ecn1604160027-n1.html
The company is based in Mashiki and was hit hard by the quakes. I believe I saw a TV report that said that while damage was severe, they have been able to stay in business because a good number of their cars were out when the quakes hit.
If you happened to see a car with “OK TAXI” written backwards on the right side, please consider giving them your business. I’m sure they’d appreciate it.
– Kirk