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The story
Collisions and shouting matches between runners and pedestrians have long plagued the loop course around the Imperial Palace. In late August, a post on X (formerly Twitter) suggesting “maybe it’s time to ban this” ignited a wave of both support and backlash. When a Tokyo Shimbun reporter actually ran the course to investigate, they found a situation where, with no clear rules in place, everything is left to manners alone. On 5ch, threads mixed complaints about groups of runners blocking the sidewalk shoulder-to-shoulder with counter-complaints about careless pedestrians, and the discussion ranged all the way from proposals for a dedicated runners’ lane to calls to “abolish Imperial Palace runners entirely.”
(Excerpt omitted)
◆ “For some reason, runners get priority” vs. “Don’t be so cold-hearted” — SNS users split
“Running around the Imperial Palace — isn’t it about time we banned it?” When this question was posted on X (formerly Twitter) in late August, it ignited a firestorm of opinion both for and against Imperial Palace running.
Source: tokyo-np.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Same mentality as train photographers (the notorious "tori-tetsu" crowd infamous for hogging public space).
If it's going to cause this much trouble, just close the whole thing off — walking included.
What are you, some kind of Olympic hopeful?
If you just plow straight into a pedestrian, well, that's on them — but if two runners collide, the impact multiplies and you might actually get hurt yourself, which is why people say knock it off.
They say the actual peak was back in the 1980s though.
No joke, these groups all have eerily similar personalities.
And don't forget the bōsōzoku biker gangs cruising around in packs on modified motorcycles.
For starters, walk along the edge of the sidewalk.
If you hear jogging footsteps coming up behind you, move aside — don't spread out.
Why can't people just stick to that?
What an arrogant guy, lol.
Personally, I'm the type who pretends not to hear the jogging footsteps.
Good luck dodging me.
On a sidewalk, ordinary walking pedestrians come first, period.
Cyclists obviously have to yield, and so do runners.
The people who'd actually follow that are the same people who already have good manners and never cause trouble in the first place.
Pointless, lol.
No matter how well you engineer the road,
as long as there are people who spread out sideways and swagger along like a lineup of G-men,
and runners who won't call out when passing or won't stop running even when the space is physically too narrow, this kind of trouble will never go away.
What's needed isn't more rules —
it's mutual respect, lol.
Just build an underground tunnel and let them run down there.
And who's paying for that?
Is the city footing the bill?
Give me a break!
"Look at me, working so hard out here running!"
"Check out my latest running fashion!"
That's really all it is.
Same mentality as those people who used to sit in Starbucks with their MacBook open just to be seen.
They literally can't run without an audience.
Same story everywhere in the world.
So basically, there's always a crowd that just wants to trash-talk everyone.
The real problem is too many people crammed into Tokyo. Just move the capital already.
Honestly, please just do that, lol.
Background and Key Issues
The roughly 5km loop course around the Imperial Palace (commonly known as “Kokyo Run”) has become firmly established as one of the few places in central Tokyo where people can safely run long distances. Legally, however, it is not a “runners-only path” — pedestrians, runners, and cyclists all share the same sidewalks and roadside areas. No rules exist to establish who has priority, leaving everything to depend on manners alone. Within the thread, complaints about “groups of runners spreading out across the sidewalk” clashed with criticism of “pedestrians who don’t keep to the edge,” reflecting a structural problem that can’t simply be pinned on one side. Proposals for a dedicated lane were also raised, though some doubt its feasibility given the cost involved. The extreme calls for an outright “ban” appear to stem from frustration with this underlying structural ambiguity.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “[Imperial Palace Running] Trouble with Pedestrians Continues… Amid Calls for a Ban, a Reporter Ran the Course to Check the Manners and Concerns.”
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