世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s a silly wee survey from goo Ranking on ___-only carriages on trains. The fieldwork was carried out over four days towards the end of October by means of a public poll, so no demographics are available. The scores in the survey represent the percentage of the top vote-getter that each option got.

Note that the Japanese term, ○○専門, maru-maru senmon, perhaps translates better as “specifically for whatever“, even though the most familiar form, 女性専門, josei senmon, is usually translated as “women only”. I’ll stick with “only” in the table, even though some may make more sense as “specifically for”.

I suspect that many of the votes were for enforcing segregation, such as for keeping the drunks or overly-perfumed (or even screaming kids…) away from the normal people. My vindictive vote would be for a bad breath-only car, but given the vapours in the average morning rush train, perhaps three-quarters of the carriages would need to be dedicated to those whose oral health was lacking.

In position number 7, strong heating or cooling, is perhaps in response to many lines having in summer a “cool” car, with the air conditioning set a couple of degrees higher. However, in my experience the default temperatures are far too strong, so I can only imagine that people are wanting a sauna or ice blocks!

I have previously translated a more serious look at women-only trains.

Q: Other than women-only carriages, which other type of ___-only carriages would you like to see?

Rank	Type	Score
1	Kids only	100
2	Mobile phone talking or mail only	96.2
3	Drunks only	94.1
4	Pregnant only	83.3
5	Old folk only	83.3
6	Parent and child only	81.7
7	Strong heater or cooler	74.2
8	Smoking carriage	69.9
9	Men only	60.2
10	Students only	55.4
11	Eating and drinking permitted	47.3
12	Pets (and their owners!) only	40.9
13	Perfume smells only	36.6
14	Snoozing only	36.0
15	Talking only	35.5
16	Reading only	32.8
17	Leaky headphones only	31.7
18	Tatami mat seating only	31.7
19	Sweating only	27.4
20	Make-up only	26.3