I ride a lot of trains in Japan but am fortunate enough to not have to ride on the crowded, standing room only trains very often, nor for very long when I do. I suppose that is one advantage of commuting longer distances. In Kyoto, I live on a northern fringe of town serviced by a separate line that I ride for about 9 minutes (5 stops) to get to one of the larger arterial lines that takes me in Osaka. Many lines have a few different trains, from the local that stops at every stop on up to the tokkyuu (special express) which makes very few stops. Tokkyuu are much faster because they make fewer stops, but are only convenient if you live near one of those stops. And if you can catch the train at the terminal, as I do, you are usually able to sit down in one of the forward facing pairs of seats that only the longer distance, faster express trains have. The commuter trains have inward facing bench seats that run along the sides of the car, opening more space for the standing customers.
Even though the tokkyuu has forward facing seats, none of them are assigned; it's all first come, first served. There is a special section dedicated for the elderly, infirm, and pregnant that manners dictate should be relinquished if needed by such individuals, but overall, its just a matter of getting an open seat. There is no entitlement or ownership to any of the seats on the train.
As a result of this equality, anyone can sit in any open seat. Yet everyone lays claim to and respects others' claims to a pseudo-ownership of sorts. In most cases, (middle age men are horribly rude by any standard) when a person comes to sit in an open seat next to an inhabited seat, they give a slight nod or mumble "excuse me" as they sit in the open space. Sometimes they have to essentially beg to be seated if the person who was already seated has filled the empty seat with a coat or bag. It is as if people feel that placing a bag there somehow grants them exclusive use of the seat that someone else could sit in.
But even more surprising is that sometimes this exertion of ownership is honored by the person who would sit down. Many times I've seen someone standing when there are open seats filled with a briefcase or something. Often the owner of the briefcase will realize this and move their object at which time the standing person will take the seat, always with a significant show of gratitude expressed by a deep head bow. Again, it is as if the person who was standing felt that they didn't have the right to ask the person to move their bag so they could sit down. I find that rather amazing, and not entirely explicable by the Japanese concern for others that is so often misunderstood as a predilection for politeness and manners. Correction, it is explainable by the aspect of Japanese cultural psychology, but it not part of the standard regimen. It's an almost pathological expression of it (but I suppose others may see it as a supremely virtuous expression of it).
But this whole dynamic of ownership and entitlement changes on trains that have assigned seating. The trains I have described above all cost the same regardless of whether you take the slow local or the faster tokkyuu. Some lines also offer premium tickets for faster, more comfortable trains that include reclining seats, coat hangers, restrooms, and deluxe and smoking cars. The shinkansen bullet train is the most striking and well known example of this class of train. The trains have an added super express fee for these amenities.
I've been riding one of these super expresses since we've moved in with my in-laws for the last 6 months and noticed differences in how people relate to each other with respect to personal space and use of the seats. Because the super express fee gets you an assigned seat, when you go to sit down, you have entitlement to the open seat next to someone who is already sitting down. Many people still offer a gesture of politeness when sitting, but the sense of "I'm sorry for impinging on the space near you" is drastically reduced. Sometimes there is even a veneer of contempt for using the "owned" space of the new arrival.
Physically there is no difference between sitting next to someone on a reserved seating train and a open seating one, but people behave differently. Maybe I'm getting impressed by simple things, but I found it intriguing that the rental of the space in a reserved car would impart attitudes that diverge from the public commons example of the open seating car. I'm not criticizing or mocking the behavior, as I do it too, but it seemed like another nice example of the ways that people in common social space create, subscribe to, and sustain collective definitions and values.
Lastly, there is one other element of the perception of ownership of an open seat that applies to both reserved and non-reserved cars. It is nice when no one sits next to you because you have a place to put your bag or drink or whatever. When my wife and I travel together, we sit together (naturally). If the seats across the isle is entirely empty, I'll often use them, but if the window seat (furthest from me) is occupied, I cannot bring myself to use the open seat. Yet why not? The person sitting in the window seat doesn't have any exclusive claim to use it, yet I can't bring myself to set my bag there. It feels like I'm invading their space. Indeed, I would be invading their space, but that space wouldn't be theirs in any definable way (like if I were to put something on their lap, for example) since I could easily sit in the empty space if needed. But I couldn't use that space for utilitarian purposes.
Odd creatures, humans are, with there psychological methods that not only create these boundaries but then ascribe such powerful value to them that they cannot bring themselves to violate them without discomfort.
Come, invade our personal space and post a comment.
Posted by Nutrimentia at January 31, 2004 05:51 PM | TrackBack