世論 What Japan Thinks

I’ve previously looked at loud phone calls on the train, but this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com found that many were annoyed by quiet phone calls too in this survey into train manners.

Demographics

Betweem the 10th and 12th of February 2010 1,080 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

I actually find quieter phone conversations more annoying, as people seem to make less effort to cut the conversation short, but instead imagine cupping their hands over their mouth masks the noise.

If I rode with other foreigners what I really want to do is to point at the person and talk in English about how bad mannered the person is, but as I don’t I have to make do with scowling at them.
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I’ve always found Japanese saying “You’re good with chopsticks” such an empty compliment as a lot of them seem pretty poor themselves, and if they ever get loose on a knife and fork it’s often a total disaster. Perhaps what they are saying is that they themselves are no good with a knife and fork, a situation that this survey from iShare seems to back up.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 21st of July 2009 574 members of the free email forwarding service CLUB BBQ completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 32.6% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, and 36.2% in their forties.

Just thinking about it, one problem my wife has is pressing the knife down when cutting things; most Westerners (I hope! Or at least most Europeans do…) hold knives like we hold our pens, with the index finger straight out, but Japanese tend to hold pens in their fists, so perhaps the correct position is unfamiliar and uncomfortable to them.

I’d also have loved to have seen them asked if they can eat spaghetti without slurping or without holding their face a few centimetres above the place and shovelling the pasta in with both fork and spoon together.
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Maybe I’ve just been in Japan too long, but I’ve recently noticed train phone manners going downhill, with talking on the phone being an obvious hate, but also people who leave their keypress beep on irritate me a lot. These feelings seemed to be shared by most people, according to this recent survey conducted by Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile use onboard trains.

Demographics

On the 2nd of February 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone using members of the Point On monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. Exactly 50.0% of the sample were female, 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% aged fifty or older.

When I go abroad this sort of behaviour doesn’t really bother me, perhaps because I am accepting that it is the social norm for the country I am visiting, or perhaps it is because I’m often trying to sleep on my daily commute.

The picture accompanying this post is a Tokyo manners poster, one of a series of posters they have produced, with today’s statistic added for a more accurate representation of the situation!
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A while back I took a look at bad chopsticks habits, but this time goo Ranking expanded the field to cover bad table manners people just can’t break. However, this time we didn’t get a breakdown by sex.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 26th of September 2008 1,044 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.6% of the sample were male, 5.8% in their teens, 12.7% in their twenties, 32.3% in their thirties, 27.6% in their forties, 12.3% in their fifties, and 9.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I occasionally do 3, I must admit, and at home I always lick the yoghurt lid, and my wife gets annoyed at me sometimes when I don’t do triangle eating. Other than that I claim to be free of all the other habits!
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I found a blog reporting a Yahoo! headline supplied by the Mainichi from a press release from the private railway companies of Japan’s umbrella organisation, so excuse the fourth-handedness of the whole story. 6000 people were questioned to find out their views on bad manners on board. So, without further ado, first some of the complaints that didn’t quite make the top grade:

• Not following telephone manners (20%)
• Not following the rules when getting on and off (9%)
• Sitting on the floor
• Being noisy in the train
• Leaky headphones
• Putting on makeup
• Luggage in the way
• Ciggies (what aspect?)
• Eating and drinking on board

The worst three, gathering the majority of the votes were all to do with sitting down.

• Sitting with legs akimbo
• Young or fit people in the priority seats
• Not squeezing up when the bench seat is almost full

My pet hate is similar to the last one, people who don’t move away from the doors when they board.