Just wanted to bump this thread. The Japanese have sirens called the Clarion Model AA-228F and AA-600A. The AA-228F only does mechanical tones and the 600A does mechanical and a weird simulated mechanical that sounds like it's from a video game. The 600A also controls their roof lights (rotary) They have a 4 second wail and an 8 second wail, plus a manual. Has a nice wind-down too,
IMO. They use it on their police vehicles and their ambulances use it the same way a Piercer's used here. Sometimes, the ambulances will use an actual mechanical siren for the same purpose. I've attached a few YouTube links of them:
Model AA-228F:
Model AA-600A:
In action:
Their ambulances normally use a couple of cutsey sounding hi-lows (it's Japan, so go figure), complete with a polite computerised female voice saying: "The ambulance is approaching from the left/centre/right, please move" or "The ambulance is approaching the intersection, please clear the way". Mind you their ambulances never seem to drive faster than 20mph either and nobody moves for them. My better half, being from there, said that Piercers and air horns would be seen as being impolite. I don't think that politeness matters in many situations. It's one bizarre country, even taking into account cultural differences. Going there is like being on some sort of hallucinogen and being on another planet at the same time.
Fire engines use a simulated mechanical tone plus a simulated bell ring. Each type of emergency vehicle has a distinct siren and all cities and prefectures equip their vehicles with the same warning equipment. Everything's standardized, right down to a vehicle's markings. The only differences are those that identify the city/prefecture. Other than that, every vehicle looks and sounds identical. Tokyo's police vehicles are the only big exceptions that I can think of. They just have the Tokyo Metropolitan Police crest on them and "police" written in English. Otherwise, they're the same as any other city.
About the police vehicles' lightbars. They're elevated so that they're visible above all of the people, of which there are more than you can imagine. They're also always on. There's a news story about some Japanese tourists inadvertently causing a high-speed chase because they didn't realize that they were being pulled over. They thought that a police vehicle's lighting is always on over here. The chase ended very nicely. The deputies/officers treated the terrified tourists with a ton of compassion.