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• Factor 2 is cultural perception. The sky is "blue" to English and Japanese speakers, but what about the sun? If you tell English-speaking elementary students to paint a picture of the sun, the majority will color it orange. Adult English speakers might akin the color to "white," but "red" is not typically what comes to mind. However, to Japanese speakers, 赤 (red) is the color attributed to the sun. The reason for this will be described later in this lesson, but it just goes to show that people don't view the world with the same cultural lenses.  
  
  
• Factor 3 is specific hue reference. English and Japanese have their distinct cultural spins on how the colors of things are described, but they are also major world languages which have developed their own repertoires of hue names. Generally speaking, any specific hue name in English has a Japanese equivalent, and there are also historical/culturally unique names. For instance, "sky blue" is described in Japanese as 空色. 

English has 11 basic colors: black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, pink, grey, brown, orange, and purple. Japanese has words for all these colors, but you will notice some of them containing the word 色（いろ）, which incidentally means "color." The reason for why it's in those words is a grammar question we'll get to later, so for now just familiarize with what's in the chart below. 

Grammar Note: When ～色 attaches to color words but is not required in all instances, it serves the same role as "color" would in English when saying "the color red." 

漢字 Note: 色名 is either read as いろめい or しきめい. 色 has the ON readings ショク・シキ and the KUN reading いろ. 

1. 雲はなぜ白いんですか。
Why are clouds white?

2. 道端で紫（色）の石を見つけた。
I found a purple stone on the side of the road.

3. 黒い煙には有毒ガスが含まれている。
There are poisonous gases contained in the black smoke.

4. 胸に茶色い痣のようなものができた。
A brown bruise-like thing has formed on my chest.

5. オレンジ（色）の空を見上げた。

I looked up at the orange sky.

6. ピンク（色）のドレスを着た女の子がいます。
There is a girl wearing a pink(-colored) dress.

7a. どうして雨雲は黒（い）色をしているんですか。
Why are rain clouds black?
Literally: Why do rain clouds bear black color(s)? 
7b. どうして雨雲は黒いんですか。
Why are rain clouds black?

Grammar Note: 色をする means "to bear color." In the case of Ex. 7, it is perfectly grammatical to still just use the basic adjectival form of "black," but the use of  色をする in 7a. emphasizes the color as a characteristic. Either the nominal or adjectival form of adjectives works for this grammar, but it must also be noted that する is always conjugated to ～している when at the end of the sentence but as ～した when used before a noun (Ex. 9). 

8. 鯛はなぜ海の中で目立ちそうな赤色をしているのか。
Why is that sea breams are a red that stands out in the ocean?

9. 巨大な蚊を内包した、透き通るような黄色をした琥珀を買いました。
I bought a transparent yellow-colored piece of amber with a large mosquito encased inside. 

10. 灰色のスーツを着ている男があそこの白いベンチに座っている。
A man wearing a grey suit is sitting on that white bench over there.

11. 舌が白くなっている。
My tongue has gotten white.

Grammar Note: Using ～なる and ～する with color words works no differently than with other words. Ex. 11 shows how the 形容詞-derived adverbial form using ～く is chosen to indicate a natural change in color. If colors are being referred by their entities and that is what changes, you would expect to see ～になる.

12. 秋になると、葉の色が決まって「赤」「黄色」に変わるのはなぜですか。
Why is that when it turns autumn that the color of leaves changes to "red" and "yellow" without fail?

13. ジュースを毎日のように飲むと、皮膚が黄色くなってしまう。
If you drink juice every day, your skin will turn yellow.

If the change is purposeful, we would expect ～する or some equivalent transitive verb instead of ～なる. 

14. 30歳を前に、髪を赤く染めた。
I dyed my hair red right as I was turning 30.

～にする as opposed to ～くする is not necessarily a change as much as it is a decision. 

15. 神様が海王星の色を青にした理由は一体何だったのだろう？
I really wonder what the reason God had for making the color of Neptune blue? 

16. 濃い黄色のペンキを選んだ。
I chose a dark-yellow paint. 

Grammar Note: In Ex. 16, we see another adjective qualifying the color word when in its nominal form, which was also seen in Ex. 9. 

16. 「一番好きな色は何色ですか」「青色です」
"What is your favorite color?" "It's blue."

17. そのバラは鮮烈な赤であった。
The roses were a vibrant red. 

Though somewhat repetitive, it's just as important to know what the basic color words are to Modern Japanese speakers. In Japanese, the basic color words are separated into 10 chromatic (有彩色) and 3 achromatic (無彩色) colors for a total of 13 colors. Notice how unlike English, transition colors are considered basic whereas colors like pink and orange are not represented. 

Based in Wuxing (Five Phases) philosophy (陰陽五行説), which is a five-fold scheme used in traditional Chinese fields to explain many phenomena in the world, there are five colors that have held major cultural significance in Japanese as a result. The five colors of this philosophy are 青 (associated with the element 木 = wood)・赤 (associated with the element 火 = fire)・黄 (associated with the element 土 = earth)・白 (associated with the element 金 = metal)・黒 (associated with the element 水 = water) in that order. 

The concept of there being seven colors in the rainbow is a direct borrowing from the West, but these seven colors of the rainbow have been borrowed verbatim with no alteration: 赤 (red)・橙 (orange)・黄 (yellow)・緑 (green)・青 (blue)・藍 (indigo)・紫 (purple).

※With exception to 茜, any of these Kanji for red also have the alternative KUN reading of あか（い）. 

Before delving into hues of non-primary colors, it's important that we recap the Kanji used for specific standard non-primary colors so that you're familiarized with their possible pronunciations. 

32.  ホワイトホースの瓶が半ばまで減っている。
The White Horse bottle is half empty. 

Word Note: White Horse is a brand of scotch whisky. 

33. ブラック企業で働いた経験のある人に質問です。
This is a question for anyone who has experience working at a toxic corporation※.

Word Note: ブラック企業 literally translates to "black company," but it does not referred to businesses owned by people of that skin color. Rather, the word "black" is being used in the sense of "evil/rogue/toxic." Businesses in Japan are frequently called then when their ethical treatment of employees is horrible, often guilty of long hours (労働時間が長いこと), not paying for overtime (残業代を払わないこと), etc. 

34. 日本政府は2日午前、韓国を「ホワイト国」のリストから除外する政令改正を閣議決定した。
The Japanese government made a cabinet decision in the a.m. hours of the 2nd approving a government ordinance revision which removes South Korea from being white-listed.

Word Note: Countries that are white-listed are preferred trading partners by said country. The phrase ホワイト国 can be viewed as a means of shortening "white-listed country" into a more typical Japanese idiom.

35. イギリスは、電力のグリーン化に4億ポンド超の基金を立ち上げ英国全体でグリーンエネルギーを推進すると発表した。
England has announced that it will launch a foundation worth more than 400 million pounds towards making electricity green, which in turn will promote green energy across all of Great Britain. 

Word Note: The process of going eco-friendly or "going green" is known as エコ化 or グリーン化, both terms utilizing the respective English word followed by the suffix ～化 which means "-ication." 

36. 今日ちょっとブルー入っているから無理ぃ！
I'm sort of in the blues today, so there's no way I can do that!

37. ピンク街に行ったことあるの？
Have you ever gone to a night-life street? 

Word Note: A ピンク街 is an area known for having lots of establishments in the sex industry. These areas are also known as 風俗街.

38. ちょっとグレーな話ですが・・・
This is somewhat of a grey topic, but...

39. 単にドジでコケたとしても、主審によってはイエローを出す人もいます。
Depending on the referee, some might issue a yellow (card) even if you were to simply trip out of clumsiness. 

40. 日本放送禁止のアメリカアニメからのブラックジョークを纏めてみました。
I've compiled dark jokes from American cartoons that have been banned from being broadcast in Japan.

41.  確かに、イランの最近の挑発はレッドラインを越えてはいない。
Iran's recent provocations definitely aren't crossing the red line. 

The word [iro] began as a noun indicating family in archaic Japanese appearing. Of these, contexts involving female members was more common, which later caused the word to be repurposed to refer to the beauty of courtship then to beauty in general before ultimately referring to color. To this day, 色 can be still seen used with these meanings as well as other nuances such as “facial expression,” “sensuality,” etc. For instance, although the word 色気 may mean "shade of color,"  it is usually used with the meaning of "sex appeal," its meaning of "hue" being taken over by other expressions such as 色合い or 色の具合.

42. 色男は何をやっても色男だ。
Lady-killers are sexy no matter what they do.

43. かわいいのに色気を感じない。
(She) has no sex appeal even though she is cute.

44. この布は色気がよい。
The hue of this cloth is good.

45. 色合いを調整して撮影する。
To adjust the hue then photograph/film.

As has been demonstrated with many examples throughout this lesson, ～色（いろ） may attach itself to many objects to describe the color represented by it. For instance, コーラ色 is the color of coke. Only in specific Sino-Japanese originated color names does 色 ever get read as しょく. A general rule of thumb is that if the color word utilizes a generic native word or loanword, it is read as いろ.

46. 顔色ばかり気にしちゃだめだよ。

You shouldn't just worry about your complexion. 

47. 表面がきつね色になるまで焼きます。
Bake until the surface turns golden brown.

Word Note: Literally "fox color," きつね色 refers to "golden brown."

48. 男の子のランドセルでは青や紺が人気ですが、水色はあまり選ばれていない。
Blue and navy blue are popular for boys' backpacks, but light blue is not often chosen. 

Word Note: 水色 is a blue color inspired by the color of rivers and lakes.  

Traditionally, the Japanese have viewed their typical eye color as being 黒い. When describing the eyes, it's important to remind ourselves that the color being referenced is found in the iris (虹彩) and that the pupil (瞳・瞳孔) is black (黒目) for all humans. 黒目 can both refer to the iris as well as a dark-colored iris. In the English-speaking world, this color would be referred to as "dark brown" as opposed to "black." This is because "black eye" refers to bruising that occurs around the eye, but this is referred to as 目の周りにできる青痣 in Japanese, which utilizes the color 青 instead.

In reality, many Japanese are away that eye color may vary between "brown" and "dark brown," and there is no problem with describing eye color with 茶色 (brown) or 焦げ茶色 (olive brown) if the iris isn't close to "black." You may also hear the color 鳶色 used to describe the eyes (and hair), which refers to a "reddish brown/burnt sienna."

Even within the Japanese native population, there are individuals with unique eye colors. One such color is "hazel" which can be literally translated as 淡褐色（たんかっしょく） (light brown) or 榛色（はしばみいろ）. In literature, 榛色の瞳 is treated as a more exact, standard means of translating "hazel eyes," but in casual conversation as well as advertisement for colored contacts (カラコン), ヘーゼルアイ can be seen.  Furthermore, ブランアイ (brown eyes) and other similar English loanwords are heavily seen in the context of colored contacts. 

"Blue eyes" and "green eyes" seldom do occur naturally in the Japanese population. "Blue eyes" can be referred to as 青い目, 青の目, 青目, ブルーアイ, etc. "Green eyes" can be referred to as 緑色の目 or グリーンアイ. The use of English loanwords as opposed to the native wordings is, again, heavily related to fashion. It's also important to note that speakers interchange 目 and 瞳 when referring to the eyes, especially in the context of color. 

Another eye color that occasionally gets mentioned is "amber," which may be referred to as 琥珀色（こはくいろ）or アンバーアイ. They may even be referred to as 狼の目 as it is the predominant eye color among wolves. 

Colored contact lenses (カラーコンタクトレンズ＝カラコン) are especially common in Japanese fashion, and the color choices are not limited to naturally occurring colors. 

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To summarize this information, let's look at several sentences which show how speakers use the various wordings. This will also act as review for when to use the noun or adjective form of an adjective.

49. 青い目の外国人と黒い目（茶色の目)の日本人の間に生まれた子供は、何色の目になりますか？

What color would a child, whose parents are a blue-eyed foreigner and a 'black'-eyed (brown-eyed) Japanese person, have? 

Word Note: Notice how the speaker is acutely aware that the description 黒い目 needs clarification given that the discussion is directed towards the exact color of a newborn child. 

50. 目の色が青か茶かは遺伝子で決まる。
Whether eye color is blue or brown is determined by one's genes.

Word Note: In this sentence, 茶色 is contracted to 茶 to maintain parallelism, but it would not be incorrect to use 茶色 instead. 

51. 青目のホモと茶色のホモとの間の子供は、青目/茶色のヘテロで、茶色い目となる。

A child born to a blue-eye homogenous (parent) and a brown-eye (homogenous) parent will be blue-eye/brown-eye heterogenous and turn out with brown eyes.

52. 青目のホモの場合、青い目になる可能性もあるが、他の色の遺伝子が発現し、他の色（緑、ヘーゼル等）になる可能性もある。
When (someone) is blue-eye homogenous, there is the chance they will have blue eyes, but there is also the possibility that another color gene is expressed making them have another color (like green, hazel, etc.). 

53. 私の目ってアンバーやヘーゼル、ブラウンの分類に入りますか？

Would my eyes fall under amber/hazel/brown?

Hair color can be quite varied depending on one's race and age. Generally speaking, hair color (髪の色 or 髪色) terminology in Japanese matches English quite well. Let's take a look at the most important phrases!

54. 金髪は人間には、比較的に稀にしか見られない髪色だ。
Blond hair is a hair color that is relatively rarely seen among people. 

55. 赤毛の色は鮮やかなイチゴ色からワイン色にまで及びます。
The color of "red hair" ranges from a vibrant strawberry color to the color of wine.  

56. ストロベリーブロンドとは金髪と赤毛の混じった珍しい髪の色である。
Strawberry blond is a rare hair color that is the mixture of blond hair and red hair.

57. 白髪は年をとってから生えるものと思っているかもしれませんが、最近は若い人でも目立つことが多くなってきました。
You may be thinking that grey hair is something that comes about once you're older, but it has recently become more noticeable among young people.

58. 銀髪に染めるというのは素人にはとても難しいことだそうだ。
Dying hair silver is apparently very difficult to amateurs. 

Word Note: The word 素人 actually comes from an idiomatic use of [shiro] and 人 put together. The opposite is 玄人（くろうと）which comes from [kuro] and 人 put together in an idiomatic sense. 

60. 黒髪が似合う人の特徴って何？
What are the characteristics that people who match well with black hair have?

While it is important to know how to express skin color (肌の色), one cannot ignore the deep tie between skin color and race. 

In Japanese society, 肌色, without the の, has been used to refer to the typical skin color of the Japanese people. This has been translated into English as "pale orange" and then back into Japanese as 薄橙色（うすだいだいいろ), but the actual color is hardly different from the skin tone of most Europeans or Northeast Asians. Because this term doesn't even really reflect the diversity of skin tones present in Japan, its use has been abandoned in official contexts, but the word lives on in casual conversation. 

Naturally, when conversations regarding skin tone do arise, you'll often hear 色白（いろじろ）and 色黒（いろぐろ）for "light-skinned/complexioned" and "dark-skinned/complexioned" respectively.
Both words are 形容動詞 which can take either な or の when used in the attributive form (連体形). 

61. もう一人も色黒だった。
The other person was also dark-skinned. 

62. 美肌に欠かせない特徴というと、やはり、多くの人は「色白」と考えるのではないでしょうか。
Speaking of what characteristics are required for "beautiful skin," there's no doubt that many people think of "light complexion," wouldn't you say?

These two terms are heavily used in Japanese society. Even in news, when race is mentioned in incidents occurring in multi-ethnic societies such as America, these words are used just as they are in the local media. Of course, it would a drastic oversimplification to describe people by these words, which is why ethnicity based on region is the safest means of describing a person. 

65. 黒人に対する人種差別が争点になっている。
Racial discrimination against black people has become a point of issue.

66. 東京の街を歩いていると、白人と日本人のカップルを見かけることが多い。
When you walk the streets of Tokyo, you often see mixed white and Japanese couples.

67. ロシア人は辛いものが苦手？
Are Russians weak towards spicy things?

※It is also common to see ～系 attached to localities to show that someone is descended from peoples of said region. 

68. 新型コロナウイルスの流行をきっかけに、米国でアジア系女性への差別が注目されるようになった。
Attention has been drawn to discrimination against Asian women in America in part due to the spread of COVID.  

From Courrier News. 

69. アメリカ先住民はなぜO型が多いのか。
Why is it that so many Native Americans are O-type?

This is not to say, though, that other color-based terminology doesn't get mentioned in Japanese from time to time when discussing race in an anthropological sense. In the 18th to 19th centuries, describing the races of the world as "white," "black," "yellow," "brown," and "red," was very common. These phrases were coined into Japanese as direct translations in the following manner: 

These words have been abandoned in academic contexts, but they can be encountered in layman discussions as their English counterparts still are. 

As a means of avoiding color altogether, American society has tried to replace these terms with other words such as "Caucasian/Caucasoid," "Mongoloid," "Negroid," etc.. These words were then directly borrowed into Japanese. Although the use of these words have also become politically incorrect, especially outside of America, they continue to be used in Japan even in academic contexts.  

In Japanese, these words are void of direct skin color connotations, but it is becoming more common and expected to not just group humanity in such a broad manner, instead using more regionally specific terminology such as the following:  (South) East Asians → 東ユーラシア人 (East Eurasian), Pacific Islanders → 環太平洋, indigenous peoples of North and South America → 南北アメリカ人.