Hi,
This one is a bit difficult to explain without getting the “everybody does that” response; however, there are levels to everything. As long as I’ve lived in Japan, I still don’t understand why the majority of people are almost frantically in a hurry. An example: I’m in a convenience store and ask the girl at the register to heat something up as I’m paying for my items. I quickly step to the side to allow the guy behind me to step up as the cashier calls him forward. He transitions from rocking back and forth impatiently to taking a gaint step to the register and slaming his goods down as if to say “hurry up” to the cashier via body language despite the fact that she’s moving as fast as she can. This is not an isolated incident. I see it daily and wonder what compels it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/189je1f/hurry_mentality/
12 comments
Dude behind you sounds like a dick.
On the other hand, I’ve noticed things like check-out lines do move much more quickly in Japan or even Japanese grocery stores in the US.
Part of it is not inconveniencing those waiting in line by making them wait any longer than they need to. We’ve all witnessed that guy who is overly friendly with an uncomfortable teenage cashier at Walmart when there’s 10+ people waiting in line.
I guess it’s the gambatte-do-your-best-all-day-everyday-mentality…
Like that little jogging-shuffle run you see everywhere whatever the weather / clothing / age of the person.
Are you in a city? Which one?
The bigger a city is, [the faster people walk](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-03-21/why-people-in-cities-walk-fast). So it stands to reason that people in Tokyo are looking to move faster than pretty much anywhere else on the planet.
I once got stuck with an ATM trying to transfer money (it was my first time doing this and a pretty big sum, so I couldn’t afford any mistakes), and got verbally harassed by — guess whom — a middle aged Japanese guy. Seems like a tendency. Pretty disgusting.
Funny to notice they do act with more patience and respect when a Japanese elderly person takes too much time with a cash machine or just anywhere else. But foreigners, as well as people who do service jobs, are an easier target for lashing out. Wish dudes could manage their frustrated masculinity in a healthier way.
I travel around Asia a bit for my business, and Japan is probably the slowest of them all. People walk slow, talk with a bunch of unnecessary keigo.
David Hasselholf once said ” these are people who cannot wait for their fish to cook!”
I find this mentality everywhere –
1) Mercari. You need to ship right away unless explicitly written on your profile .
People get so angry when you ship even within the period specified on Mercari (people get angry if you max out on 7 days even though Mercari allows it)
2) Yahoo auction – you have five days and people get angry if you settle it in on the fifth day or cancel it and block you . What if you credit card needs to clear ? You shouldn’t have to apologize for being late if it’s within 5 days.
They make their lives more stressful tbh. there is a specified platform-based grace period for a reason but they take it very personally ans create their own ad-hoc rules.
I was surprised selling on eBay people don’t hurry shipping items and don’t get a 🙁
Not the case down in Fukuoka, I think this is just a big city thing like in nyc Tokyo London etc. if you think Japan is fast, try Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong lmao
I think it’s less about actually being in a hurry and more about how DARE you be so inconsiderate as to make me wait. It’s not everyone but people use these interactions as a way to vent their stress about unrelated things / general dissatisfaction with their lives
It’s funny. Whenever I pass someone because I’m hurrying somewhere, as soon as I run SO DO THEY! What and why are you running??? A lot of times they’re didn’t end up going the same place as me? Baffling!
Only time I happily give people a pass on it is those clearly rushing to make a tight norikae connection or something in stations. Otherwise, jus chill and wait your turn, dude, no one cares how “busy” or “taihen” your life is 🤦♂️
I remember once though a Chinese colleague was always running around – like literally running or at the very least suuuper fast walking, like she was always in a mega hurry to get somewhere. I one day commented to her “X-san, you’re always so busy, rushing around!” and she was like * conspiratory finger to lips * “No, I just **look** busy this way” 😂😂🔥
Frantic sense of urgency is largely due to our current level of technology. Many people have been raised with instant access to everything, so waiting comparatively seems very torturous. Of course there’s a lot of psychological warfare going on to make people more frantic and rushed, the justification is “it stimulates the economy.” Another example of this, if you look for it, almost every movie has a line where one character says “oh, you look terrible” or “you look like shit”. This is meant again as psychological warfare to go into people’s subconscious minds, so they worry they aren’t good enough and thus buy more stuff. Same reason people are constantly eating or drinking alcohol in movies. It’s meant to “stimulate the economy” but really it’s psyops against their own people.
Japan has had a ton of this since WW2 starting with the concept of Kaizen – continuous gradual improvement – which was actually fed to Toyota by an American productivity executive. The infrastructure was nonexistent due to all the bombing so you couldn’t get anything done. So this scheme was cooked up to leverage the Japanese society’s sense of honor to get them to work super hard. It worked, obviously. The side effects are very brutal.
Sounds like my MIL trying to herd us through a family trip she planned.