The importance of social etiquette in urban Japan

TOKYO —

Ask someone to describe the Japanese people in 10 words or fewer and more often than not “polite” or “reserved” will appear somewhere in the mix. Japan is known the world over as a safe, pleasant place to live where people are on the whole helpful and courteous; few people visit Japan and return home with tales of rude airport staff or inattentive waitresses.

When I first came to Japan, I had the pleasure of living for five years in a pretty little town in Fukushima Prefecture, surrounded by rice fields, rivers and some of the deepest greens I have ever seen. Of course, I experienced the warmth of locals’ hospitality and kindness first-hand, but it was only in when I moved south to Tokyo in 2011 that I came to understand the real meaning of the word “mana” (manner), and began to appreciate how much more important it is in urban living.

An English word adopted into the Japanese lexicon, “mana” is used to describe everything from not sticking your chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice to putting your mobile phone in discreet mode during a meeting. During my time in Fukushima, I had become accustomed to Japanese customs and rules of social etiquette — saying “itadakimasu” and “gochisosama deshita” before and after a meal, respectively; reversing into a parking space so as not to make others wait while I reversed out later; saying “ojamashimasu” when entering someone’s home or office — but city manners, I soon came to realise, is an entirely different beast.

With its population of more than 12 million, to say that Tokyo is crowded would be putting it mildly. Add an extra 3 million to that figure to include those commuting into the city from outside areas each day to arrive at a staggering 15 million. With so many people squeezed into such a small space, it’s little wonder that manners are such an important a part of daily life.

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