As far as walking while talking on your cell phone, I’ve heard that it’s actually physically stressful to people.  When you only hear one side of the conversation, your brain tends to focus more on the conversation, and tries to fill in the holes (i.e. what the other party on the phone is saying), than if you were hearing two people talking together in the same place.  Trying to piece together the conversation through the bits you hear is a fruitless endeavor, and thus stressful.  We don’t mean to do it, your brain just automatically starts doing it.  I think some people are more sensitive to this than others.  I can’t stand it, so I’m glad it’s seen as a rude thing to do in Japan.

People also tend to talk louder on phones than they would on person. Especially if they have a bad signal, they will practically be screaming into the phone. I figured it was considered rude because of the louder volume.

Eating while walking…I cant do that, I tried it once, it felt soooo wrong  O.o 

I like the idea of the no smoking while walking thing, I think every city could benefit from that :)

When I was in japan I was always looking for a game center to light up a cigarette :) … as you said, its strange to be allowed to smoke inside and not outside. In Roppongi and Shibuya areas thou, many japanese people smoke while walking, so I wasn’t feeling that bad about doing it …

Speaking on your cell phone is rude everywere, its better to txt people, like most of japanese do.

Hmm…I didn’t know any of these things…I guess I am just a baka gaijin after all. xD

I can see why they wouldn’t want people walking and smoking at the same time, but if you’re not sitting and smoking, that’s hard. Me personally, I pace around like I just lost my car keys when I smoke.

With all the talk about Japanese workers being so busy and coming home much later than the typical American worker, it seems like more Japanese people would multitask out of necessity. That being said, Japanese people tend to walk up the escalator to save time, whereas Americans tend to stand there and enjoy the ride. Japanese people tend to compulsively press the “close door” button in the elevator. In my experience, most Americans rarely touch that button. I guess we all just try to save a little time in different ways.

Japan is definitely a quiet country, though. One of the things that struck me most when I first went there is Shinjuku station. Busiest train station in the world – 3 and a half million people per day, but almost no noise. It seemed almost surreal, like something out of a movie. Nobody talking on a cell phone. Hardly anyone talking to the person next to them. (And if they do, they use their “inside voices.”) No loud music coming from the stores or restaurants. Just footsteps, turnstiles, and, of course, trains. 

I wish you would tell these rules to the Japanese people where I am!!
In big cities, though, it’s usually because they have places to smoke and then discard your cigarette, so it’s not walking, but it’s still in public and viewable.

Another exception to the eating and walking rule (kind of) is at festivals… although, to my surprise, people will find a place to sit down and eat before continuing on their merry way. That’s not how I did it though! Feels like foreigners like me just don’t have the time to stop and eat? :P

The part I’m most annoyed by is some of the stuff I’ve seen on trains recently… people around where I live are pretty darn loud, talk on their phones, eat… And I get weird looks just for opening a drink bottle on the train…

Yeah, as far as I can tell it seems like the younger crowd is less likely to adhere to these social conventions than the older generations.

Maybe it just depends on the areas in Japan you go to. From my experiences during the time I stayed there, most of the above mentioned social conventions rang true. The streets I walked on every day were spotless.

Hahaha.

Sounds wonderful. Added to places I must visit.

It would be nice to see London without having to run away from a horrible stinky cloud of smoke.

I would say, as a counter point, that while the Japanese have a lot of rules for how to behave in public – they don’t seem to have too many rules about how to use space. Just to give an example – I’ve noticed lately that, when I drive, people cut me off. I observed some more and noticed that cutting people off – that is to say, pulling into traffic suddenly, or squeezing yourself between two cars at a red light and forcing your way in – that’s not something that bothers people. It’s considered “normal.” It’s how you get into traffic here.

But Japanese people will also obstruct sidewalks as if it is their born, natural duty to go out at 2 in the afternoon and get in your way. The other day, I rode my bike across the town I live in and, I swear, every ten or twenty meters, someone would look right at me and NOT. MOVE. out of my way.

So, just…the thing about Japan seeming super polite is that they are super polite about things that WE DON’T DO. We smoke and walk, and eat and walk, and talk and walk. They don’t do that. Oh! They’re so polite!!!!!!

Well, no: in fact, if you look at Japanese manners, a lot of their “politeness” is about stupid, pointless, arbitrary crap. I’ve had children tell me that I’m sitting wrong at lunch and I’ve eaten it in the wrong order – in dead serious earnestness. Yet the traffic lights here have to run on a delay because running red lights is, again, considered “normal” and just the way things are done. Something that can and does result in people dying every single day? No problem! We don’t need a rule! Something minor, stupid and utterly meaningless to anyone’s life? There is only one way to do it and if you break that rule, God help you!

This is really a PERFECT example. It’s not ok to walk and eat? Why? What does that do for any human being anywhere? NOTHING. Japanese people gain no benefit from this rule. Cutting people off and getting in their way on a sidewalk? That can actually be dangerous. Walking and eating? Not dangerous. There is a rule against one of these behaviors.

But that’s not to bash Japan. Japan is just a place. They aren’t super polite, and in fact, compared to my home in America, the Japanese are an unspeakably rude and inconsiderate people – in certain aspects. In other aspects, they are super amazingly polite. It’s really just a matter of perspective – I’m from a broad, open city – I NOTICE when people get in my way or cut me off in traffic. Where I come from there is NO EXCUSE for that behavior. If I were from New York, though, I bet this place would seem super amazingly polite – indeed, I visited Chicago recently and was BLOWN AWAY by how Japan-ly they drive there.

Which was humbling, because I often would say, “In America, we don’t drive like this.” Well, yes, in Chicago, we drive like we’re from Japan. Fine. In INDIANA we don’t drive like this. It’s all perspective, nothing more. The Japanese follow arbitrary and dumb rules obsessively – sometimes this makes Japanese people do stupid and arbitrary crap – I should know, I’ve worked at Japanese schools and live with Japanese children (my stepkids). I put up with stupid, arbitrary shit EVERY DAY. But the upside is that, when it comes to a social event – the Japanese will actually follow the rules and guide lines, and put things back where they belong, and return all the borrowed stuff, and do all the nice things that you wish people would do after an event but don’t.

And that is, honestly, amazing, and a credit to Japan’s moral fibre. BUT – that moral fibre comes at a price – in order to have people who follow the rules unthinkingly – well, you gotta get them to stop thinking about the rules. Sometimes, they even MAKE UP rules in their heads and just convince themselves that it’s real. “I heard once somewhere that this is a rule, so you can’t do that.” Trust me: my life was practically ruined by this type of thinking once.

Anyway. I eat while I walk here. I do it on purpose. I am a rebel.

I dunno about the other poster, but I was in the kansai region (mostly Kobe) for 9 weeks, and then Tokyo for one.

“you might burn a hole in their clothes, or scorch the
skin on their arms. And it’s even worse if you happen to bump into a
small child. You run the risk of burning their face or getting hot ash
in their eyes. Definitely not a pleasant experience.” Made me cringe getting ash in your eye is a nightmare lol

haha,brilliant, for an european, i always hated eating/using phonr while walking. smoking was different but i laid that s**t down already :) must… move…. to JP… (hey, did you know we hungarians use the eastern name order since forever? family name first!;)

I believe there are also taboos about putting on makup while on the train.

I don’t like the no-somking thing. For a simple reason: It comes at the cost of public resting places altogether.
Have you ever tried to find a bench or something the like outside in Tokyo and sit down for a bit, maybe to have your lunch there? They are rare, very rare. And when you finally find a place to sit down, there sure are dozens of somkers on the spot that you can’t even enjoy a few minutes in peace in this busy town. Same goes for restaurants, hate having smokers around me while eating here. That said, I quit smoking myself a few years ago when we could still smoke in restaurants at home..shame on me ….

Is eating in public, whether walking or stationary, seen as a taboo as well? When in Japan I found there were countless times I’d grab something quick to eat in the morning from a convenience store or something, and sit down under a tree to start eating it and suddenly feel like everyone was staring at me.

Is it also rude to block thoroughfares? Something which always enrages me to genocidal proportions is people’s penchant for blocking doors or walkways.

Sure I can understand right that these restrictions can lead to exciting meetings with people you know but  you could just move out of the way of everyone else instead of standing in the way and talking about your stupid insignificant lives.

“Oh yeah hey the other day I met Glenda right, we blocked off a rotating door for half an hour whilst we talked about Made in Chelsea.”

And also the way people like to walk side by side, come on, make like a Tusken Raider. 

I completely agree with their smoking idea, for all the reasons listed. However, talking on the phone that’s a little bizarre to me but I guess that’s just a cultural difference but its always nice to know these things for anyone planning to visit so they don’t make a fool out of themselves!

Not everything the Japanese do makes sense or is the sensible thing to do. Like struggling with umbrellas whenever there is a few drops of rain coming from the sky, or labeling women who apply make up on a train “sluts”.

Yes, this also struck me as very hypocritical when I first came to Tokyo. The number of real “non smoking” restaurants / cafes in Tokyo is very low. I don’t count the ones that have a smoking section and a non-smoking section as there’s smoke and stink everywhere in those.

The longer I live in Tokyo, the more I understand that this city is built around the Salaryman lifestyle more than anyone else’s lifestyle. And unfortunately, most Salarymen smoke.

Thank you very much for the etiquette lesson. Well-written plus good photos.