A video posted on X showing passengers packed onto both sides of an escalator at Nagoya Station went viral on 5ch’s “Live News G” (Nandemo Jikkyou G) board. Apparently Nagoya even has a system where a buzzer sounds if it detects someone walking, and the video showed just how thoroughly the “stand on both sides” rule is enforced there — in contrast to Tokyo and Osaka, where the custom of leaving one side clear for walkers is deeply entrenched, sometimes producing lines dozens of meters long as people wait to pass. Saitama Prefecture was the first in Japan to encourage standing on both sides via an ordinance, but commenters noted it has had little real effect.
Source video
Source: x.com / Original post here
By the way, here's an escalator at a Tokyo station
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2066685917813993472/vid/avc1/648×636/Xph3zg-WNTj00atV.mp4
It's kind of like ants caught in a death spiral
What kind of phenomenon is this…
Does living in Tokyo make your brain degenerate?
So people in Tokyo don't think this is weird?
Just use the stairs or move faster
There are places where the escalator is the only way down to the platform, you know
That can't be true — it'd violate facility safety regulations
There's definitely stairs somewhere
Just take the long way around
Besides, places like that probably have crowded escalators anyway
No way, go look for it
What do they even do during regular maintenance inspections?
It's not really about effort — Saitama is basically part of the same commuter zone as Tokyo, so doing it alone was never gonna work
The lack of productivity is stunning
This Tokyo thing really makes no sense
There's an empty spot right next to you!
In Nagoya, if it detects someone walking, a buzzer goes off and everyone gives you dirty looks
They go that far?
No wonder it stuck
That's the spot going up from the Meijo Line at Kanayama Station
Everyone thinks it's dumb, but nobody ever changes it
People have personal space, and nobody wants a "tonarā" (someone who plants themselves right next to you) standing beside them
People who ARE in a hurry can just walk straight up
Tokyo's way is better, isn't it?
Why not just walk up first, then stop and look at your phone?
Why would you only stand on one side?
Japanese people be like: "I just feel like that's how it's supposed to be done…"
Yeah, but it has no penalties, so it's meaningless
Background and points of debate
The custom of leaving one side of the escalator open for walking is said to have spread through the Kanto and Kansai regions starting around the 1980s–90s, but escalator manufacturers have long urged riders to stand still on both sides, citing the risk of falls while walking. In 2021, Saitama Prefecture became the first in Japan to enact an ordinance requiring people not to walk on escalators, but it carries no penalties, and commenters on the thread pointed out its lack of real effect, saying “nobody bothered enforcing it, so it was pointless.” Even though Nagoya’s both-sides standing appears thoroughly established, as shown in the video, this seems to owe more to on-the-ground measures — like audio warnings from the station — than to any ordinance. Opinions in the thread were split between those praising the both-sides habit as a sign of “high public manners” and those defending the one-side-open custom as reasonable for people in a hurry. The discussion also veered into statistics about driving manners in Aichi Prefecture at one point, but since that’s unrelated to escalator use and included some weakly supported claims, it has not been included in this article.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Live News G) thread “[Video] X users say ‘Nagoya’s manners are next level’ as standing on both sides of the escalator becomes the norm.”
