Dealing with priority seat Nazis －優先席ナチスの扱い－

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Edmund Burke

“The only thing necessary for old people to be left standing is for young people not to give up their seats.”
William Lang

In Japan, people patiently wait their turn in queues.  After a natural disaster, people calmly help one another, without the chaos and looting often seen in other countries in such situations.  There are plenty of great examples of the good order kept and manners shown in Japanese society.

So why then does practically no one give up their seat on the train to the elderly, disabled, pregnant, and so on?  Even people sitting on the priority seats will pretend to sleep while a bent old lady hobbles around in front of them.  University students will pull out a banana and start munching happily while a heavily pregnant woman stands in front of them, trying not to throw up as the motion of the train exacerbates her morning sickness.

What would it take for these priority seat Nazis to actually stand up?  If a one-legged blind man hopped forward, trying not to drop his newborn baby twins as he made desperately for the priority seats, would the perfectly healthy salary man sitting there get up?  I doubt it.  He would certainly panic for a moment.  But then he would close his eyes, certain that if he pretends he hasn’t seen the guy coming then he can’t be held responsible.

So is there any solution?  I propose that the government issue a priority seat card.  Like a driver’s license or other official ID card, you would have to apply for it at the ward office.  They would be given automatically to pensioners, the disabled and expecting mothers.  Then a glass door would be built around the priority seats in all train carriages.  You could only get into the little compartment if you swiped your card over a lock at the door.  No doubt some salary men would get their hands on the cards by going to the ward office and feigning injury.  But at least they would have to positively act to keep their priority seat, rather than just closing their eyes and avoiding all responsibility.

Maybe the cost of such a scheme is prohibitively expensive.

So perhaps the trains could install speakers behind the priority seats which played enka (an old style of Japanese folk-pop) all day long.  This would help to remind healthy young people that these seats are not designed for them.

Or maybe the elderly and the pregnant can just sit down on the laps of the young and healthy people taking up the seats.  Once he has been sat on by a heavily pregnant woman, even a priority seat Nazi will soon learn some manners. 

Vocabulary:

triumph – victory; success

looting – the stealing of goods when law and order has broken down, such as during a riot

to hobble – to walk with difficulty, such as with a leg injury

to munch – to chew

to exacerbate something – to make something, such as a problem, worse

to hop – to move forward on one leg by making small jumps

to feign (injury) – to pretend (to be injured)

prohibitively (expensive) – too (expensive) to be done, achieved etc.