Vintage Tokyo Subway Manners

"Space Invader", March, 1979

Rider Patricia sent over this series of vintage Tokyo subway manners posters. The posters appeared between 1976 and 1982, and are too awesome not to share. If we had posters as witty as these, I think we would probably see better behavior on the bus.

Isami-ashi: Wait behind the white line (May 1979)

You know the big-balls-having, seat-taking guy y’all have complained about? He should see this:

The Seat Monopolizer (July 1976)

There are loads more of these posters so meander over to Pink Tentacle to check them out.



  1. JC

    The seat-hogger ones are AWESOME. I think the Chaplin/Hitler ones might be considered to be mildly over the top here in SF but the alien reading the paper is just great. MD should have a contest to see if someone can design ones more culturally connected to the here and now.

    Still, fantastic.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

    • eugenia

      Yes! I think you’ve just given me a brilliant idea…

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

      • JC

        Happy to help. Maybe some winners can go on Cafe Press T-shirts or something. Because I doubt MUNI will put the winners up on the 43. (Although I guess I can dare to dream).

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

  2. faithy

    Seriously, part of Muni’s efficiency problem is some Muni riders themselves. Able bodied people who are slow to board AND exit the bus, some who stand blocking the back exit when there are seats, and people who are just straight up afraid to move to the back.

    AND those stupid taggers. Where’s the respect?

    We need Muni Manners posters for sure!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

    • eugenia

      We DO need these posters, stat!

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

  3. patricia

    i guess we can all feel good that we don’t have an umbrella problem over here, at least

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

Leave a Comment

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>