The short version
- Phone calls are the one rule that gets enforced socially, not by any sign: silence your phone in "manner mode" and take calls off the train, even a short one.
- Priority seats (yuusenseki) exist near the doors on most cars. You can sit there when they're empty, but the expectation is to give them up on sight for elderly, pregnant, injured, or disabled passengers, and to switch your phone fully off near them.
- Women-only cars run during specified rush-hour windows on many commuter lines, usually the front or rear car — the exact car and hours vary by line and are posted on platform signage.
- "Stand on the left" is outdated advice in parts of Tokyo now. A growing number of stations and municipalities are asking riders to stop walking on escalators entirely and stand on both sides — follow the platform signage over anything you read here.
- If a delayed train makes you late for work, ask at the ticket gate for a chien shomeisho (delay certificate) — a free slip your employer can accept as proof, and most operators now offer a same-day digital version too.
A phone rings on a packed train. The owner answers, realizes what's happening, and hangs up mid-sentence rather than talk. Nobody says anything to them, and nobody needs to — the carriage has already gone quiet in a way that makes the point on its own. That single moment covers more of Japan's train etiquette than any list of rules could. Most of it is unwritten, so residents pick it up mainly by watching what happens around them each morning. This guide is written for the version of that scene that matters most: a resident who takes the same line every weekday and wants to stop guessing, not a tourist working out how to survive one train ride.
The phone rule, and why it outranks everything else here
Most train cars post a small icon of a phone with a line through it, and the in-car announcements ask passengers to set their phones to "manner mode" (silent) and refrain from talking. Texting, browsing, and silent gaming are all fine. Voice calls are the line that actually matters, and it holds on nearly every commuter line, not just near priority seats. If a call comes in, the norm is to let it go to voicemail or answer just long enough to say you'll call back once you're off the train.
This is the rule newcomers break first, usually without meaning to, and it's also the fastest way to read the room correctly for everything else on this list: watch what happens (or doesn't happen) around you, and match it.
Priority seats: sit if empty, watch for who's boarding
Priority seats (優先席, yuusenseki) cluster near the doors at the ends of most cars, marked with distinct seat covers and signage showing who they're for: elderly passengers, people who are pregnant or carrying an infant, and passengers with disabilities or injuries. There's no rule against sitting there when a car is empty or you can't find a seat elsewhere, but the working expectation is to keep an eye on who boards and offer the seat without being asked. Near these seats specifically, the phone request escalates from "silence it" to "turn it off," out of consideration for passengers with pacemakers.
Women-only cars: what they cover, and what they don't
Many commuter lines run one car reserved for women (and, on most lines, young children and passengers with disabilities regardless of gender) during specified windows, most commonly the morning rush. Which car it is and which hours it applies varies by line and even by direction of travel; platform floor markings and car-side signage spell out the specifics for that particular train. Outside the designated hours, the same car usually reverts to open seating. Treat the signage on your own platform as the source of truth rather than a general rule of thumb, since the details genuinely differ line to line.
Escalators: the "correct side" answer is shifting under your feet
The advice that circulates endlessly among newcomers (stand right in Osaka, stand left everywhere else) describes a real regional split that still shows up in casual behavior. But it's increasingly the wrong thing to optimize for. Tokyo Station and a number of other stations now post signage asking riders to stand on both sides and not walk, and Saitama Prefecture has gone further with an ordinance that makes escalator walking an offense (unenforced with penalties in practice, but a clear signal of where policy is heading). The reasoning is safety: walking past standing riders on a moving escalator causes a disproportionate share of station injuries, and operators would rather riders stand in place, two abreast, than keep one side clear for walkers.
| Region or station | Traditional pattern | What's changing |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo and most of eastern Japan | Stand left, walk right | Growing "stand both sides" signage at major stations, including Tokyo Station |
| Osaka and much of Kansai | Stand right, walk left | Same broader push toward no-walking signage exists, though the old pattern still shows up in casual use |
| Saitama Prefecture | Mixed | Ordinance in effect asking riders not to walk on escalators at all |
None of this is uniform enough to memorize once. The reliable move is to read the floor markings and posted signs at whichever station you're standing in that day, and default to standing still if you see no signage at all.
Rush hour: the two things that actually matter
Bags and backpacks come off the shoulder and go in front of the body or up on a rack, mostly so a shifting bag doesn't jab the person packed in behind you. Boarding order matters too: passengers line up on marked spots either side of the doors and let everyone getting off clear the car first, and pushing past that line to grab a seat reads as rude even when the platform feels chaotic enough that nobody would notice. Both habits exist for the same practical reason — a packed car only works if everyone leaves slightly less room for themselves than they'd take on an empty one.
The delay certificate: a document most newcomers don't know exists
Trains in Japan run on a schedule tight enough that a delay of even a few minutes gets tracked, and that tracking produces something useful: a chien shomeisho (遅延証明書), a delay certificate an employer can accept as proof you were late through no fault of your own. Most operators issue one once a delay passes a threshold, commonly around five minutes, and stop handing out slips that day once the delay is confirmed and logged.
Getting a delay certificate
- 1 Notice the delay before you leave the platform Stations post delay notices on departure boards once a threshold is crossed, usually a few minutes late.
- 2 Ask at the ticket gate or a staff window Say "chien shomeisho onegaishimasu" (延証明書お願いします) — staff hand out a printed slip stamped with the date and delay.
- 3 Check for a same-day digital version A number of major operators, including JR East and Tokyo Metro, now post a downloadable PDF version on their website the same day, so a station visit isn't always necessary.
- 4 Hand it to your workplace, not a government office The certificate is for your employer's records. It has nothing to do with visa status, taxes, or any public procedure — it's purely a workplace courtesy document.
How much weight a delay certificate carries is up to your specific employer's own attendance policy, which this guide has no visibility into and won't guess at. What it can tell you is that the document exists, it's free, and asking for one is completely ordinary — station staff hand out dozens on a bad delay day and won't blink at the request.
Where this guide stops
This is about everyday etiquette and the delay certificate, not about what to do if something goes wrong on a train — harassment, a medical emergency, or a dispute with another passenger. Those situations call for station staff, the emergency intercom in the car, or the police, not a guess based on an etiquette list. If you've lost something on a train instead, a companion guide on this site covers exactly that.
Related reading
- Teiki or tap-and-go: the commuter pass math for hybrid workers — the cost side of the same daily commute this guide covers the behavior side of.
- Lost something in Japan? What to do first — for when the etiquette above wasn't enough to stop you leaving a bag on the rack.
- Learning Japanese while working full-time — the same commute this guide covers is also where a lot of residents fit in study time.
- Reading your Japanese payslip — for the rest of the workplace-culture questions that come up once the commute itself is sorted.
Sources
Confirmed via search engine results on 2026-09-01 (this environment's direct fetch of most Japanese and Japan-focused sites is blocked, consistent with prior guides on this site):
- JR Kyushu (official) — Train manners in Japan — official operator guidance on phone use, priority seats, and general in-car conduct.
- GaijinPot — Better Train Etiquette in Japan — phone rule, priority seats, and general boarding conduct, cross-checked against the JR Kyushu page.
- JRPass — Priority Seats on Japanese Trains: Rules and Etiquette — priority seat scope and the stricter phone-off expectation near them.
- Get Around Japan — Left or Right? Japanese Escalator Etiquette — the Tokyo/Kansai regional split in escalator standing side.
- Time Out Tokyo — You are now advised to stand on both sides of the escalator at Tokyo Station — the shift toward no-walking escalator signage and the Saitama ordinance context.
- PLAZA HOMES / realestate-tokyo.com — Train running late? Get a Train Delay Certificate (Chien Shoumei)! — how to request a delay certificate and the typical delay threshold.
- GaijinPot — Train Delays in Japan: Why They Happen and How to Handle Them — the role of the delay certificate as a workplace document and the growing availability of digital versions.
- JR East (official) — Delay certificate — the operator's own English-language page for looking up and downloading a same-day digital delay certificate by line.