Tokyo, An Overview – Japan Episode 3

By C.I. Sivasubramanian
Aged 96, Retired Director, Ministry of Commerce, New Delhi

Introduction by Venkat
This is the 3rd episode, and Mr. Sivasubramanian covers the cityscape of Tokyo with a good glimpse on the kind of life the Japanese live there. While this is from his travel two decades back, it does underline how far things developed in Tokyo! The way the Japanese ensure discipline in life and thought is noteworthy indeed. Keenly looking forward to the next episode on Japan.

Tokyo, An Overview – Japan Episode 3

Tokyo, by virtue of being the headquarters of the Government and business, is densely populated. People commute to work by cars, trains (both street level and underground), buses and also cycles. There are a dozen lines of underground and as many street-level trains covering Tokyo and the suburbs. The trains are crowded during office hours. There are people employed for pushing commuters into the trains, called ‘people-pushers’, during office time, though I had not had the pleasure of watching this ‘tamasha’ myself. Trains are punctual. Workers are expected to report to office in time. If they are late even by a few minutes their half an hour’s pay is cut! My daughter, who worked there, told that it was not an exaggeration. It was a real fact of life. Punctuality is thus maintained.

Most people used passes and went through automatic gates installed at the railway stations. I am told that passes are used even for going by bus. There are no conductors in the bus. The train fare is quite high from the Indian standards. The minimum fare is ¥ l30 and the maximum somewhere around ¥ l500, per trip! I think that even by western standards it is quite high. The trains and buses as also the taxis have automatic doors. I am told that taxis are very expensive but one can watch people taking the taxis as frequently and as routinely as they do in Bombay.

People observe traffic signals scrupulously which show their discipline. Pedestrians cross the road only when there is a green signal for them. The signals are horizontally placed unlike ours which are vertical. Cars and other vehicles stop a few meters away from the zebra line. For all this, there are very few policemen on the road. But there are surveillance videos/sensors on the roads, in the department stores and elsewhere. Violators can be caught easily and, I am told, are heavily punished.

The road kerbs are very wide in most of the places leaving space for the pedestrians and cyclists to commute. The cyclists do not go on the main roads. You can see volunteers (or perhaps shop owners) cleaning the kerbs in front of their shops every morning and keeping the trash at one place for the municipal van to carry it. There are vending machines almost everywhere. People use them freely as they go along. These machines offer for sale not only soft drinks, but beer and in some places even women’s stockings! Almost every woman wears stockings, winter or summer.

There are telephone booths almost everywhere from where you can make even out-station and international calls. Telephone cards can be purchased and used for local and even international calls. The charges are punched away and the remaining free calls are numbered on it. In Post offices, everybody waits for his turn to enter the counter. One counter takes care of all your requirements, whether it is for stamps, registration, parcel or anything.

In most of the places (shops, banks, theatres) there are automatic doors, the glass doors just slide back the moment you are near it and slide in when you have entered. Escalators are aplenty in the department stores and other places; there are travellators (moving platforms) in the airports and railway stations. Some of these conveniences have come to India now but I am talking of a time two decades ago. In some of the shopping centres you can see very tall buildings reminding one of Manhattan.

The Japanese love flowers. In the shop fronts and almost everywhere you can see flowerpots neatly arranged. Heard of Ikebana?

By C.I. Sivasubramanian
Aged 96, Retired Director, Ministry of Commerce, New Delhi

Mr. Sivasubramanian hails from Coimbatore. He has been living in Delhi throughout life. He was employed with the Government of India, Ministry of Commerce and retired as Director in 1986.

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