Jama Japan
Here is an interesting thing, which almost no one seems to talk about. It's what i call Japanese people’s 'jama habit'. Jama means obstructing or interfering. Though this is a small scale mundane thing, it seems to me that it may connect to various interesting aspects of Japanese relationship to the environment, cognitive processing habits, and sociology.
1. People blocking the sidewalk and entrances
An interesting thing about Japanese people is their habit of standing right in the most obstructive place at road crossings, entrances and various other public places. For example if they are waiting to cross the road they very often wait in a place right in the middle of the pavement/sidewalk – so that people coming along in from the other way cannot get through. Especially if they are on the bicycles then it means they take up almost all of the space on the narrow Japanese pavements. As we can see from the photo at the top of the page. The two kids on the bicycles are 90% blocking the path of anyone walking or cycling along that sidewalk. They could go a bit forward or a bit back and it would be fine - but, no, they wait smack in the middle, in the most obstructive place possible. I see this everyday.
I often wonder why they do this. In the UK there would be 2 easy answers:
1. They are stupid and don’t realize they are getting in people’s way
2. They are deliberately being aggressive and causing trouble.
But with Japanese people neither of these seems to explain it. Firstly, it’s not just a few stupid people who did this, but many people, a lot of the time, both young and old, men and women. Secondly, Japanese people are rarely aggressive in such public places, and if you ask them to move over they almost always move over right away and often apologise for the trouble - so the 2nd reason doesn’t hold either.
Here is an interesting thing, which almost no one seems to talk about. It's what i call Japanese people’s 'jama habit'. Jama means obstructing or interfering. Though this is a small scale mundane thing, it seems to me that it may connect to various interesting aspects of Japanese relationship to the environment, cognitive processing habits, and sociology.
1. People blocking the sidewalk and entrances
An interesting thing about Japanese people is their habit of standing right in the most obstructive place at road crossings, entrances and various other public places. For example if they are waiting to cross the road they very often wait in a place right in the middle of the pavement/sidewalk – so that people coming along in from the other way cannot get through. Especially if they are on the bicycles then it means they take up almost all of the space on the narrow Japanese pavements. As we can see from the photo at the top of the page. The two kids on the bicycles are 90% blocking the path of anyone walking or cycling along that sidewalk. They could go a bit forward or a bit back and it would be fine - but, no, they wait smack in the middle, in the most obstructive place possible. I see this everyday.
I often wonder why they do this. In the UK there would be 2 easy answers:
1. They are stupid and don’t realize they are getting in people’s way
2. They are deliberately being aggressive and causing trouble.
But with Japanese people neither of these seems to explain it. Firstly, it’s not just a few stupid people who did this, but many people, a lot of the time, both young and old, men and women. Secondly, Japanese people are rarely aggressive in such public places, and if you ask them to move over they almost always move over right away and often apologise for the trouble - so the 2nd reason doesn’t hold either.
Another good example: a young female student standing right in the middle, right in front of the narrow entrance to a shopping road, in the most obstructive place possible, despite there being lots of space to stand that would not be obstructive. And with an older lady in front almost as bad. How is it they don't realise this is obstructing others from getting in or going out?
Also it is very obvious that they are in the way, since they know the narrow spaces of Japanese streets and sidewalks – they use them everyday. So, what stops them from realizing that they are in the way when it's so clear? Because it seems they genuinely appear NOT to realise it. It simply does not occur to them. I remember one example when I asked a young student of about 20 (at supposedly the high level Kumamoto University where the smart young people go) to move her bicycle forward so i could pass. She did so, but then once I had passed she moved her bicycle BACK into the obstructive position again! Despite it being a very narrow road that many people use and her having to use extra effort to return her bike to its obstructive place, for no good purpose. I noticed that another person coming along about 5 seconds later was blocked - they simply squeezed themselves through the few inches of space left between her back bike tyre and the wall. The girl seemed not to have understood she was in an obstructive place despite me asking her to move out the way.
This is not meant to be just a moaning criticism of those people that do it (although, it’s a bad habit, of course, and even an aggressive one). My aim here is to try to understand WHY, out of sociological and psychological interest. How is it that this happens in a country famed for its politeness? How is it that the people doing it seems genuinely not to realise they are blocking the way? Why do Japanese people almost never complain when others do it? - I've seen countless times when a Japanese person will just squeeze through the remaining 10% of space or even walk out onto the road near speeding cars, rather than asking the obstructing person to move over a bit.
Lastly, since this is something that happens millions of times everyday, why is it almost never discussed or studied? Why are they no academic studies of this behaviour? Or I can't find any (and I've looked!). I've asked various people about it, Japanese and foreigners, academic and my friends and not got much in the way of ideas or explanations. But I have got some and I will post them here later.
2. Cars blocking bicycle lanes and sidewalks
As we can see from the above photo this delivery van is 100% blocking the sidewalk, forcing an old lady to quite literally walk in the middle of the road, and forcing the car trying pass her to go onto the wrong side of the road. And its not a quiet road either, but a moderately busy one. This puts pedestrians at risk of being hit, and cars at risk of hitting each other.
This scene happens millions of times everyday in Japan - so, my question: why do Japanese put up with this bad situation?
You may notice that there is a car park space right across from the obstructive place the van is parked. There very often is such a space nearby, but the vans almost never use them, when making their deliveries, or taxi's when waiting for their customer. Surely, if they are only waiting 5 minutes it would be ok to use the free space, no? For the sake of not putting people in danger. What is more important - people's safety or that the owner of the car park loses a little money?
Oh, the money is more important!
Now, I see...
This scene happens millions of times everyday in Japan - so, my question: why do Japanese put up with this bad situation?
You may notice that there is a car park space right across from the obstructive place the van is parked. There very often is such a space nearby, but the vans almost never use them, when making their deliveries, or taxi's when waiting for their customer. Surely, if they are only waiting 5 minutes it would be ok to use the free space, no? For the sake of not putting people in danger. What is more important - people's safety or that the owner of the car park loses a little money?
Oh, the money is more important!
Now, I see...
The above photo is a related thing. Because of the increasing (and very stupid) tendency to buy big cars that are too wide or long for the narrow streets here there is often not enough car park space when a customer goes to a business like a hairdresser or cafe etc. So, their car completely blocks the sidewalk, once again forcing people, including children from the school nearby to walk on the road. By chance no cars are going along when I took this photo, but it is a moderately busy road. Again, i see it everyday yet I’ve never seen a police person admonish anyone for this.
Oh, actually I did once - when I myself asked them to do something about it! A van was blocking both the sidewalk and bicycle path only 5 meters away from a police koban (small station), yet they didn’t even seem to notice it. So i asked one of them if such a thing was not dangerous, and they reluctantly went over to ask the van person to move. Nihon mamoru!
Oh, actually I did once - when I myself asked them to do something about it! A van was blocking both the sidewalk and bicycle path only 5 meters away from a police koban (small station), yet they didn’t even seem to notice it. So i asked one of them if such a thing was not dangerous, and they reluctantly went over to ask the van person to move. Nihon mamoru!
3. Buying big cars that are clearly too large for the narrow pavements here.
As I say above, though many cars are in Japan are only medium sized, the famed 'K-cars', there is an increasing tendency to buy big cars that are too wide or long for the narrow streets here. So such scenes above are very common - that two cars can not get passed each other on the narrow roads.
In this photo both cars are only medium sized, as Ive not been lucky enough to snap a scene yet of a big car blocking the way. Will add one when I get it! The point is, what goes through the heads of people in car showrooms that they look at some big car and then DONT think to themselves: ‘Ah, thats not going to be very useful in the narrow streets where we live. Let’s buy this smaller car instead.’ Does that thought really not occur to them? Or does it and they chose to push it out of their minds, because this big car is just sooooooo cool!
Is your cool and feeling of power worth something worth blocking other people, increasing the chances of hitting them in the narrow roads, and all the inconvenience you cause yourself by having to back up such roads when another car comes along, or giving up going along some road because your car simply won’t fit, or even scraping your precious paintwork on the wall!
That's 'jama Japan' for you...
And to repeat, because some people seems to be incapable of understanding the difference between personal moaning and making valid comments about a culture: this is not meant to be just a moaning criticism. My aim here is to try to understand WHY all this stuff goes on and is not changed, out of sociological and psychological interest. And to hope we move towards a better situation.
Ok?
Jama! Jama!
In this photo both cars are only medium sized, as Ive not been lucky enough to snap a scene yet of a big car blocking the way. Will add one when I get it! The point is, what goes through the heads of people in car showrooms that they look at some big car and then DONT think to themselves: ‘Ah, thats not going to be very useful in the narrow streets where we live. Let’s buy this smaller car instead.’ Does that thought really not occur to them? Or does it and they chose to push it out of their minds, because this big car is just sooooooo cool!
Is your cool and feeling of power worth something worth blocking other people, increasing the chances of hitting them in the narrow roads, and all the inconvenience you cause yourself by having to back up such roads when another car comes along, or giving up going along some road because your car simply won’t fit, or even scraping your precious paintwork on the wall!
That's 'jama Japan' for you...
And to repeat, because some people seems to be incapable of understanding the difference between personal moaning and making valid comments about a culture: this is not meant to be just a moaning criticism. My aim here is to try to understand WHY all this stuff goes on and is not changed, out of sociological and psychological interest. And to hope we move towards a better situation.
Ok?
Jama! Jama!