The difference between the two signs (both visual and textual) got me wondering how official these ones are.

They don’t appear in the list of Japanese road signs on wiki which does have warnings for some animals (but not cats) and so I’m wondering, are local areas allowed to provide supplemental signs at the prefectural or city level?

Or are these actually completely unofficial signs, put up by a village, or neighbourhood group, or even by individual residents?

And if they aren’t official, what’s the legality? In many places in the world, putting up custom signs which mimic the appearance of actual road signs is a definite no-no.

They’re cute signs and I love them, but I’m curious now and I wish I had some answers lol.

The most impressive thing I’ve seen from them was when an earthquake/tsunami had wiped away an entire road, including most of the cliff face it was on. Didn’t take two or three days for the entire road to be fully reconstructed.

Meanwhile, there’s roadworks going on down my street that have been ongoing for 3+ years with no end in sight.