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The story
A video of runners circling Tokyo’s Imperial Palace became a hot topic on 5ch’s “Live News G” (Nandemo Jikkyo) board. The clip, posted with the caption “and this is supposed to be a sidewalk,” showed runners spread out across the entire width of the footpath, drawing 41 replies. The thread kicked off with an innocent question — “where do Imperial Palace runners even come from, and where do they change?” — before spiraling into a practical standoff over whether pedestrians or runners should yield the right of way, and even concerns about covert filming. Some posters cited the legal definition of a “sidewalk,” while others simply dismissed the whole debate with “just go to a gym.” No consensus was reached.
And this is supposed to be a sidewalk 😭
Source: video.twimg.com / original clip here
What people said
There's apparently a whole business around lockers and shower rooms for that.
Just run there and run back instead of taking the train lol… is what I keep thinking.
Most runners are probably coming straight from work.
Then just run home too lol
Huh, didn't know rental facilities like that existed. Feels like it'd just be easier to go to a gym though.
Not so much in the middle of the day during peak summer heat, obviously. But foreign tourists run there too, and there's always someone out running from early morning till night.
The crowd and headcount vary by time of day, but no matter when you pass by, someone's running.
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2090965175138668544/vid/avc1/2160×3840/yYoi4zdA18S43pjn.mp4
Why's only one person's face blurred out?
Unless you've got a decently sized park nearby, there really aren't many places to run. Running on regular sidewalks means people popping out of shops and apartment buildings, so it's dangerous and you have to stay on guard.
It's the only spot downtown with open sky like that.
Nah, you really can't — 3km tops if you're lucky. Meanwhile two laps around the Imperial Palace (10km) is nothing.
It's for hooking up with people, isn't it?
A sidewalk is a section of road set aside so pedestrians can travel safely.
Where does it say running is prohibited?
>"Sidewalk: a section of road demarcated for pedestrian use by curbstones, fences, or similar structures."
That's not even what it says, liar.
Runners at Expo Park
A collision is something both parties are involved in, yet somehow pedestrians never move and only the runner is forced to swerve.
The legal principle is that whoever's moving faster bears more responsibility for being careful.
Say that louder — the more that spreads, the sooner "runners are trash" becomes the accepted public opinion.
So what, run in the road instead? Getting secretly filmed without consent is the worst part of this.
What if they got permission first?
If you're filming the Imperial Palace, people are bound to wander into frame.
Why is it always the runners who have to move out of the way? Pedestrians and runners are both using the same sidewalk — they should be equals.
If it bothers you that much, just don't dodge and let yourself collide with them.
Why don't you become the "collision guy" yourself and clear out the pedestrians who are in your way.
Honestly it's probably social media's fault. All it takes is stepping 10cm to the side to avoid a collision, but people have started getting drunk on the idea that "I'm the one in the right," and that's how we ended up here.
There were way more incidents back in the day, no question. There was even an era of clockwise-vs-counterclockwise turf wars.
That's exactly why people have been saying this for ages.
People used to complain about it constantly, but you don't hear it as much these days.
It just means people are still complaining even though the numbers went down. So nothing about that is contradictory.
I always figured the people running there were the ones for whom the Imperial Palace happens to be the closest decent running spot to where they live.
80% of them are probably running after work or something.
Running the same route over and over would get boring, wouldn't it?
Background and key points of the debate
The area around the Imperial Palace is known as one of the few signal-free loop courses in central Tokyo, and its roughly 5km route circling the old Edo Castle grounds draws large numbers of runners from early morning until night. The “run station” mentioned in the thread refers to paid facilities offering changing rooms and showers, pointing to a whole segment of runners who treat their commute-by-train as an extension of their workout. The debate split along two lines: the traffic-safety principle that “whoever is moving faster should exercise more caution,” versus the more rigid stance that “sidewalks exist for pedestrians.” Some posters even cited the Road Traffic Act’s legal definition of a sidewalk — a section of road demarcated for pedestrian use. That provision, however, doesn’t explicitly ban runners from using sidewalks; the restriction is really a matter of custom and etiquette, a nuance that’s easy to miss. Several posters also suggested that the spread of social media has eroded people’s willingness to give an inch for one another — which suggests this is less a legal dispute than everyday friction over manners.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Live News G) thread “[Video] Imperial Palace runners are WAY too annoying WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.”
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