Now Reports

How about some more tolerance?

I‘m not good at reading maps, so when I venture to a new city, I almost always get lost at least once. With my trusty old smartphone in one hand, I keep checking my current location and the distance to my destination, but I still end up getting lost. This is why I tend to use subways instead of buses when I travel. I think it’s better to ride the bus because you can enjoy the scenery of the city, but it’s easier to get off at the wrong stop on a bus. That’s why riding the subway gives me peace of mind. Subways also have another advantage: As opposed to the front-facing seats on a bus, the seats face each other so you can enjoy people-watching. Japan places a lot of importance on manners, so you rarely see anyone too out of the ordinary, but you can get a feel of how people live by the way they dress, for example.

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The other day, however, I did see something funny. When I went to visit my friend in Nagoya, I saw people eating hamburgers on the train—twice! It wasn’t a packed morning train, but still, no one else seemed to pay the burger eaters any attention. It made me wonder: Are there different levels of tolerance for accepted behavior on public transport in different regions?

I’m from Busan in Korea. Busan has had a subway for quite some time, but even now, older people speak on cell phones without considering those around them, and on older lines, you’re likely to meet at least one vendor loudly hawking his wares, a beggar or a missionary. The same applies in Seoul. Lately, however, everyone has smartphones, so I hear news reports of people taking pictures or videos of people who are clearly being a nuisance to others and posting them to social networking sites—like modern day witch-hunting. Setting aside whether this is right or wrong, it does seem like people are becoming more conscious of etiquette.

In Fukuoka, local high school students participate in campaigns to raise awareness of subway etiquette. Student posters are hung on the walls and messages are broadcast throughout the stations to remind people of proper etiquette. Recently, I have heard stories of poor rider manners, but I don’t think it is at a level that is a cause for concern.

Japan places value on living in harmony with others, so by living here you can acquire kuki wo yomu noryoku—the special skill of “reading the situation”. Japanese people who have learned this skill from a young age are more than mindful of others, so I think they could relax a bit. Trying not to bother other people is the right thing to do, but I think people could be little more tolerant. Dodesho? After all, rules are the natural result of people living together in one place.

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by Wonah Lee, Busan (Korea), Project Planner

offyourchest

Originally published in Fukuoka Now Magazine (fn177, Sep. 2013)

Category
Others
Fukuoka City
Published: Aug 30, 2013 / Last Updated: Jun 13, 2017

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