Even though Tokyo subways are generally very crowded, I haven’t observed much bumping or rude behavior at all, and the trains and stations are also quite clean. I wrote about Tokyo subways in a previous blog post.
Tokyo Metro launched a series of ads this year to remind subway riders of “manners”. Every month, a new manner poster is displayed on all subway stations. The latest reflects the current autumn weather (although I have no idea why they have snow in the poster at this time of the year) and the Japanese love for the game of golf. Notice again, the English text in the poster.
I’ll post previous month’s posters below as well.
Updated 12/08/08: See a recent article in Telegraph.co.uk titled “Japanese commuters told to be courteous as standards fall“.
At first I thought the mountain one was referring to the woman who’s eating on the train? It’s quite ironic, because you’re not supposed to do that either, and they don’t even mention that in the small print of that ad..
>At first I thought the mountain one was referring to the woman who’s eating on the train
It’s referring to her, too. 「山でやろう。」 (Do it on the mountain)…”It” meaning laying out all your hiking gear and having a picnic.—so it’s saying not to inconvenience other passengers by eating on the train or letting your baggage get in the way of others.
I wrote a post about the manners posters too. (Everytime I saw them, I thought that I should put up a blog post about them…but never did til today. Your post inspired me!
)
It’s here:
http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/manners/
heya
I figured that out from the ” do it on the mountain “, but I was referring more to the small print that only mentions “please be considerate of others when holding bulky belongings”…
Thanks for the comments and good discussion.
I guess everyone may have their interpretation or focus on different aspects – which is a sign of a good sign (pardon the pun).
[...] faster, probably because people are very orderly and patient. Although reminders are found in the Tokyo subway manner posters, I found Japanese people to be generally very well mannered – speak in low tones, no talking on [...]
[...] posts a new subway manner poster in their station as I wrote about last year in a blog post titled Tokyo Subway Manner Posters. For some strange reason, I look forward to the first day of every month when the latest poster [...]