Tips for traveling in Japan

Ladies only car

Last Updated (Sunday, 31 August 2008 22:23) Friday, 15 August 2008 00:00

Tourists should know about two public rules before coming to Japan. These rules surprise not only foreign travelers, but also people from the Japanese countryside.
One is the ‘Ladies only car’ on the trains and the other one is no-smoking on the street..  This article is about the Ladies only car.  I will write about the other one, next time.

"Ladies only car" means a train carriage which only women can ride in, men must ride in other cars.  This rule is not Japanese law, but the railway companies in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka, have brought in this rule themselves.  This is sometimes confusing for tourists as each railway company determines the signboards, periods of time and which carriage is used.  Please refer to the chart below.

The reason why the "Ladies only car train" has appeared comes from two aspects of Japanese culture.
The first one is this is a small country and the population is concentrated in the cities.  Many people commute so the trains are crowded.  It is often so crowded that you can't even scratch your nose.
The second is the reserved nature of the Japanese. Some men use the crowded trains to molest women, but Japanese women tend to bear this in silence without shouting (as trains are very quiet and they are reluctant to draw attention to themselves).

As I mentioned this rule is not a Japanese law.  You will not be arrested if you get in the carriage by mistake.  It is sometimes funny to watch a man, who is in the ladies car, take a few minutes to notice his mistake.  Because rest of passengers are women most of them just stare at him. He is often surprised and quickly runs to the next carriage through the connecting doors.

 

 

Campany Name	Route or Type	Period of Time	Number of Cars
JR	all Train	weekdays 1) First Train - 9:00 2) 17:00 - 21:00	middle car
Osaka Subway (Osaka MTB)	Midosuji Line Tanimachi- Line	weekdays Midosuji - all Time Tanimachi first train - 9:00	Midosuji-6th car Tanimachi-Line 3rd car
Hankyu	Express Train	weekdays all Time	5th car
Keihan	Express Train (To Kyoto )	weekdays first train - 9:15	1st car
Kintetsu	Express Train (To Osaka)	weekdays  first train - 9:30	last car
Nankai	Express Train	weekdays 7:20 - 8:30	4th Car