9 Small Japanese Habits That Make People Respect You

9 Small Japanese Habits That Make People Respect You 🔔 If you found this useful, you could subscribe. I will be here next week. On October 1, 2015, thirty-seven railway operators across eastern Japan changed one sentence. For years, the notices beside the priority seats had asked passengers to switch their phones off. From that morning, they asked it only when the train was crowded. The old rule had been written for machines, out of worry that a phone's signal might disturb a stranger's pacemaker. The phones improved, so the rule relaxed. One line on the poster did not change at all: please do not talk on the phone on the train. That one was never about machines. It was about the tired man by the window, and the woman whose baby had just fallen asleep. No amount of progress was going to make it unnecessary. My mother never called these things manners. She called them kokorokubari, the habit of keeping part of your attention on the people around you. A card offered with both hands. A clean handkerchief folded in the pocket. A chair pushed back in before you leave. A thank-you said again, three weeks later, to a neighbour who had already forgotten. Nobody gave marks for them, and nobody announced them. They were passed on at the kitchen table and on the station platform, and corrected with a look rather than a word. I learned them that way. Many people never had the chance. And the people around you will never stop to explain what they noticed. They simply decide, quietly, how much they trust you. Number eight is a phrase my mother said her whole life. I have mostly stopped saying it, and I will tell you exactly why. Number four is the reason my section chief made me say good morning eleven times in my first month, while the whole floor went quiet. And number one takes a single second. It tells someone whether they were a person to you or an interruption. Which of these nine did your mother or father do without ever explaining it? And which is the hardest for you to keep? For most people, I suspect it is number two. Almost nobody carries a handkerchief any more. I read every comment, and what you write there decides what I talk about next. Articles and sources I used for research apart from my upbringing: https://www.jreast.co.jp/press/2015/2... https://www.itmedia.co.jp/business/ar... https://tokushima-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/re... https://www.nihongomaster.com/blog/ho...