Is B2F, B1F, 1F, 2F, … wasei-eigo?

Question

While visiting Tokyo, I noticed that most levels were indicated by B2F, B1F, 1F, 2F, ... .

This doesn't look like the Romaji for -kai or -gai counter-words, which I assume would be chika ni-kai, chika ikkai, ikkai, ni-kai, ... .

Is it wasei-eigo for Basement 2nd Floor, Basement 1st Floor, 1st Floor, 2nd Floor?

Answer 1

This may be an answer to Derek's comment rather than to Andrew's original question.

They are commonly written on walls right in front of an elevator, stairs, or an escalator, or on elevator buttons. They stand for Basement 2nd Floor, Basement 1st Floor, 1st Floor, 2nd Floor, as Andrew wrote. In Japanese, when words are abbreviated, they are usually abbreviated in romanization or abbreviated after its English word. Writing F would require much less strokes than 階.

I did not know that they are wasei-eigo. Are they not used in English? Or, do you mean that the word order Basement 2nd Floor is wrong as English and should rather be 2nd Basement Floor or 2nd Floor Underground or something? If you mean that, then it might be wasei-eigo. The idea is something like 'negative 2nd floor'.

Answer 2

You already know what these signs mean, but let me try to answer your specific question: Are these wasei-eigo? A short answer is “probably no.”

Recall that a wasei-eigo is a word which looks like a loanword from English but in fact is made in Japan. Although the signs B2F, B1F, 1F, 2F, and so on are specific to Japan (and possibly some other non-English-speaking countries), I do not think that it is common to call them wasei-eigo. They are just “signs used primarily in Japan,” and it is not clear if they are words at all.

Sometimes people may abbreviate 地下1階 to B1F in writing, but even in that case, I guess that most people read it as ちかいっかい. This suggests that B1F is merely a way to write 地下1階 instead of a separate word in its own right.