Back when Japanese knew manners …
Posted by Matt Dioguardi on March 26th, 2008
According to the Times online:
There was a time in Japan when courtesy was second nature. If you saw an elderly person, a pregnant woman or somebody on crutches, you would leap up and offer them your seat. These days, you pretend to be asleep and avoid eye contact at all costs.
Is this true? Or is it just a myth? I’ve been in Japan 14 years, and it seems to me like it’s always been this way. There are some pleasant exceptions, of course. And of course, sometimes there are valid reasons for not giving up a seat — not that I have time right now to go into that …
April 11th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Man, having lived in Japan in the late ’90s and then coming back for a 3-month stay last spring/summer, I can assure you that it’s better NOW than it was then! I don’t know what that person at the Times is smoking…which, by the way, is another manner’s issue that has improved greatly over the ten years I was away.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:27 am
When i went over a couple of years ago my husband (japanese) was the only one on the train that stood up and gave his seat to this mentally handicapped guy. Everyone else just looked down at their feet or pretended to be busy. I think it’s pretty apalling. I’ve never seen anyone get up for an elderly person or pregnant lady either.
April 19th, 2008 at 11:23 am
I think it was true until early 1970s. Baby boomers initially changed the social behavior of people in the 1970s. I think that people’s manners in public transport are getting worse these days, I mean, after 1990s.
April 25th, 2008 at 4:36 am
False. People always say these things, but when you talk to old timers, they’ll tell you things were at least as bad back in the ‘good old days’.
April 27th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Just for information, I have seen what I wrote above in real time. But I understand that people tend to believe what they want to believe.
April 27th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Wasn’t that one of the main themes of ‘No Country For Old Men?’ Older folks often tend to feel that the world has changed or passed them by, but in reality, there’s nothing new under the sun; Older folks often just tend to feel so disconnected they can no longer relate today’s world to the one of their past.