Escalator Rules

Japan is a very rule-governed country. Sometimes the rules are stated explicitly, other times they are implicit but still uniformly followed. So it comes as something as a surprise to delve into the rules surrounding escalator-riding etiquette. Nearly every train station and every department store in Japan has escalators, not to mention airports, shopping malls, and other multi-level places of general congregation.

If you ride an escalator in Tokyo, you will everyone standing on the left, allowing a passage on the righthand side of the escalator for those who wish to walk. You might justifiably infer from this that the general (unwritten) rule in Japan is: stand on the right, walk on the left. But you would be wrong. For in Osaka and its surrounding suburbs, everyone stands on the left and walks on the right! Here, for example, is Sage demonstrating correct Osaka-style escalator etiquette, coming back from her cello lesson in Osaka on Thursday evening:

Why does Tokyo do it one way and Osaka do it the other way? The short answer is: nobody really knows. This hasn't stopped people from offering various interesting theories to explain the difference. My favorite is that Osaka was traditionally a city of merchants, while Tokyo was traditionally a city of samurai. The merchants kept their coin purses on one side, while the samurai wore their swords on the other. (This begs various questions. How often did samurai ride escalators? Presumably as a merchant you want your coin purse on the opposite side from the people you pass on the street, but what about swords? Perhaps on the same side, in case you suddenly need to defend yourself? Also, although samurai swords were traditionally worn on the left, they were drawn and wielded with the right hand, so perhaps the sword should be on the opposite side to oncoming traffic, so that when drawn it would then be closer to the potential adversary.)

What about other parts of Japan? When we were in Hokkaido, people seemed to follow the Tokyo rules and stand on the left. This fits other stories that I have read that portray Osaka as the regional exception to a general left-standing Japanese escalator practice.

Shelley and Chloe following the non-Osaka rules in Sapporo, Hokkaido:

And then there is Kyoto. On purely theoretical grounds, one could imagine Kyoto going either way. On the one hand, it is not Osaka or a suburb of Osaka, so shouldn't it follow the general non-Osaka Japanese rule of standing on the left? On the other hand, Kyoto is very close to Osaka, and is part of the same Kansai region of which Osaka is the capital, which would suggest that in Kyoto people would stand on the right.

It turns out that Kyoto is a mess when it comes to escalator rules, and you can sometimes find people standing on the left and sometimes find people standing on the right. Nor are the signs in some of Kyoto's train stations much help:

The English on the above sign is rather ambiguous, but the Japanese makes it a bit clearer since it says "Please assist to pass on the left," presumably meaning that people should stand on the right, and thus follow the Osaka rules.

You might think from observing the patterns of behavior in Kyoto that there is no systematicity to escalator practices in the city. The simplest rule of thumb is "Do whatever other people are doing on the particular escalator that you find yourself on" but of course that is not a general rule that everyone can follow at once. Some analysts have sought to find order in the chaos of Kyoto's escalators. They claim, for instance that escalators in JR stations in Kyoto (JR is the public, long-distance rail network) follow Tokyo rules, while escalators in the Hankyu and Keihan stations (private, more local railway lines) follow Osaka rules, since JR connects more with Japan at large (including Tokyo) while the private lines connect more with Osaka and its suburbs. I haven't been in a railway station since reading about this theory, so further research is needed to see if empirical studies bear it out.

And as a final twist, there is some evidence that the authorities would actually prefer it if:

(i) Everyone stands on escalators and nobody walks (both for reasons of safety and because it actually turns out that it is more efficient for getting more people up and down the escalators).

(ii) People stand in the middle, rather than to one side or the other.

Evidence for the latter claim comes from the signs that are often posted near escalators and which show a figure standing in the dead center of the escalator: