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.