Paper short abstract:

This presentation analyzes the logics of "desirable" passenger conduct and it's solicitation in Tokyo public transport spaces. Drawing on long-term fieldwork, it explores the conditions and strategies of invoking "order" in a train and subway system operating "beyond capacity" (Fisch 2018).

Paper long abstract:

Taking the train is an essential part of urban life in Japanese cities. While previous research has predominately focused on historical dimensions and mediated representations of public transport in Japan (Hood 2006; Freedman 2010; Tsuji 2006), recent scholarship has started to explore train and subway spaces as indispensable features of contemporary Japanese urban life and infrastructure (Bissell & Negishi 2020; Fisch 2018; Pendleton & Coates 2018). However, only limited attention has been awarded to passenger conduct. This research seeks to address this gap by enquiring into the logics of "desirable" passenger conduct and the development of regulatory efforts.

Michael Fisch (2018: 60-62) has pointed towards the importance of "train manners" (densha no manā) for maintaining the operations of public transport in Tokyo - a system which runs "beyond capacity". Accordingly, appeals to good "train manners" are ubiquitous in Tokyo public transport spaces, asking individuals to behave in a way that purportedly facilitates safe, on-time and comfortable travel experiences for all passengers. Next to broadcasts and warning signs, friendly and humorous "manner posters" are among the most predominant efforts by transport companies to nudge commuter conduct in the "right" direction.

Based on one year of ethnographic fieldwork featuring interviews with train companies and passengers, archival research, and participant observation on Tokyo public transport, this presentation analyses the development and logics of train manners in contemporary Japan, as well as company efforts to improve them. An in-depth analysis of regulatory strategies, it seeks to develop a grammar of transgression and correction in everyday spaces of urban mobility. Examining "inconsiderate" or otherwise "problematic" passenger behaviors, it not only seeks to discuss the challenges of "mov[ing]with others" (Bissell 2016) in the crowded urban transport spaces of the Japanese capital, but explore the significance and nuances of the notions of meiwaku and manā in contemporary Japanese society.

Paper short abstract:

Local railways in Japan are facing a wide variety of challenges, among them demographic change, a higher car ownership and fragmented rail ownership. This presentation will address these challenges and look ahead what local railways will be like in the 2020s.

Paper long abstract:

Japan is a country famous for its railways, especially for the shinkansen and the efficient railway and subway networks in the large metropolises. However, local railways in Japan are facing a wide variety of challenges in the 2020s, among them are the demographic change with an ageing population, which means fewer regular passengers as there are less students and commuters. Also, as Japan's population has started shrinking a few years ago, especially in rural areas, many local railways are losing their customer base. Furthermore, the number of cars in Japan as well as the car ownership rates keep rising in all of Japan (with the exception of Tokyo), thus intensifying the competition between different transport modes.

One response to this challenges is the closure of railway lines and their replacement by buses, if there is no political willingness to support the railway lines as a social infrastructure. Another response is that municipalities or prefectures take over railways from a private operator, which avoids the closure of the railway but further fragmentates Japan's railway network. Fortunately we have seen a huge amount of support for railways in recent years, but challenges remain.

This presentation will look into the problems and challenges of local railways in Japan, and discusses different approaches to support the railway network, among them financial support for railways as well as a new ownership models. It will be analyzed which approaches are expected to bring the largest benefits for the local population.

Paper short abstract:

Eki-mae [in front of a station] is more than a simple direction or location, but a social space that serves different purposes and is used by a broad variety of beings. This paper discusses everyday practices enacted at different eki-mae in Tokyo by drawing on multisensory fieldwork-data.

Paper long abstract:

'Eki-mae' [in front of a station] is more than a simple direction or location: It is a social space and institution that serves different purposes and is used by a broad variety of beings. It is a waiting area, a meeting point and place of disperse, but also allows for intended and unintended encounters, convivial gatherings and conflicts and opens a space of possibilities.

While Marc Augé (1995) rendered train stations as an example of characterless "non-lieux" [non-places], I argue, that eki-mae, the space between the station and the city, is a different case. I draw upon Setha Low's (2009) concept of embodied space to emphasise the "everyday practices" (cf. de Certau 1984) and individual perceptions that create a "lived space" (cf. Lefebvre 1990).

Using multisensory fieldwork-data which address smellscapes as well as sonic traces and haptic stimuli, I portray different locations in Tokyo and discuss them to highlight common features and explicate the historical and spatial peculiarities and trajectories (cf. Sand 2013). The change of social environment and role as well as transportation mode and vehicle are deliberated through the everyday practices of waiting, meeting and leaving. By doing so, I connect the findings of recent studies regarding rail transport and urban mobility (Fisch 2018, Kaima & Bissell 2020) with a sensory aware anthropology (Hansen 2018; Pink 2012) to contextualise the interwoven state of humans, machines and places.

By expanding the frontiers of critical urban studies to overlap with social, political and psychological phenomena, this paper should stimulate a discussion about the interwoven mechanics of everyday life, mobility and urban space. Based on my case studies this paper shows, that eki-mae - these places in front of stations - are a rewarding spot to study social behaviour in urban Japan and to reflect about changes and pressing problems in contemporary Japanese society. Through its multi-sited approach, this paper aims at critically rethinking the upcoming challenges in the field of interdisciplinary studies of a mobile and changing urban Japan.