A recent Japan Times article mentioned a bit of culture shock Japanese people feel around tourists: the way so many foreigners just plop themselves down everywhere — on the train platform, in front of a convenience store, even on the doorsteps of random buildings.[1]
This is one of those small-but-not-small things. It’s not a crime. No one's going to arrest you. And in places like Europe or the US, it wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. In fact, I bet most of you reading this see absolutely nothing wrong with this and probably would even do it yourself.
But in Japan, this behavior turns heads.
Why? Because the ground is dirty. We are not necessarily talking obviously dirty: just the very idea of outside space has a dirty image in Japan There is a very distinct and clear separation between inside space and outside space in this country. We keep these two spaces separate as much as possible. The best known aspect of this philosophy is removing your shoes before entering a Japanese house. You remove them because they are dirty and that dirt shouldn't be brought inside.
Sitting on the ground, especially near a building entrance or on a public walkway, comes across as a bit crude. The floor and ground outside is dirty. You want to avoid making contact with it. Your shoes make contact with it, so they’re removed at the door , but if your clothes touch it, they become dirty too. Stripping off your clothes before entering a house isn’t the custom, of course, so the idea of sitting where it’s dirty becomes faintly horrifying.
It bears repeating: The ground outside is dirty. That’s the key idea here. If we want to trace the origin of this we can go back to Shinto and its focus on cleanliness. But I'll spare you that digression (for now).
Of course tourists and foreigners don't know this. But this separation between indoor and outdoor space and the feeling that it's dirty outside is so ingrained in Japanese people that it's difficult to stop the reactions.
We can even get more specific here. The culture around sitting is tied up in the broader Japanese idea of cleanliness. Many Japanese people wouldn’t even sit on the floor of their own home unless it was tatami. Sitting outside, on pavement that’s been walked on by who-knows-what, in front of people’s homes or businesses? That’s way over the line. You’re not just resting — you’re disrupting the harmony.
The tricky part is, nobody will tell you directly. At best, you'll get a sideways glance. At worst, you might see your photo uploaded to social media with a passive-aggressive caption like, “This is why manners are important.”
This is really a tricky thing because tourists don't know the culture and something like this is too nuanced and difficult to get across in a simple awareness campaign. So it probably won't change anytime soon.
But you, dear reader, if you visit Japan, try not to sit on the ground when outside a home, no matter how clean it looks to you. If you absolutely need a rest and can't find a park bench (worth noting, many Japanese will put down a handkerchief to sit on so they don't directly touch the dirty park bench), try to squat down instead — this is something you will see the Japanese themselves doing.
Oh, but the Asian squat... that's a whole different can of worms.
Want more cultural posts like this? Let me know in the comments. Have you made this mistake before, or noticed someone doing it?
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David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Mastodon. |
I can't find the article now. Hmm.. it may have been on Asahi, or maybe Japantoday... I don't remember. ↩