Turning car off at stoplights

[mikebw]

Drew wrote:
[quote=August West]
Where's Drew at?

Hey! Thanks for asking. I'm here in Osaka/Kobe. Turning headlights off at a stoplight is done as a courtesy, so as not to shine lights in the eyes of the other driver who is waiting at the same red light but going opposite direction of you.

I noticed it first time I came to Japan in the 80s. At that time, American car headlights were controlled with a knob/switch on the dash, while nearly all cars in Japan had them on a stalk on the steering wheel for this very purpose.
That's very interesting. My 87' Toyota Cressida had the light controls on the stalk just like you say and I never understood why American cars had the controls on the dash. It seemed very primitive in comparison.