Priority seats? What priority seats?
The Asahi Shinbun would like a word with you:
I’m now nine months pregnant and finding a seat on the train and traveling safely to work over the past few months has been a nightmare.
Rarely was I offered a seat even in the priority seating area where there is an impossible-to-miss illustration of an obviously pregnant woman under the words oyuzuri kudasai (please offer your seat).
It’s exhausting standing on a jolting train when your belly seems to weigh a ton. Rush hour is even worse.
But how many people know this? As they say, I guess you had to be there.
I was, and it’s been common for young people in their teens and 20s to lounge in the priority seats engrossed in their mobile phones or manga. Even when I stood directly in front of them, I might as well have been invisible. They never bothered to look up to check who was standing before them–even for a second–be it an elderly or disabled person or a pregnant woman.
A colleague who commutes with me finally became so angry she asked a young woman sitting in the priority area to move for me. It worked–the young woman hurriedly apologized and surrendered her seat.
It was all so disheartening. What has happened to this country?
Don’t look at me, lady. I’m not moving out of the priority seat. As a foreigner I am pretty much disabled/mentally retarded, so I should be entitled to a seat for Elderly/disabled/pregnant people! And don’t bother asking me to move, as all foreigners are incapable of understanding Japanese.
