The Left-Hand Drive Mystery in Japan: A Tale of the Samurai
What side of the road do you drive on? Tell me your country and I can probably guess. A good rule of thumb is that former British colonies drive on the left, while everyone else drives on the right. This doesn't always hold (for example, the US and Canada—both former British colonies—drive on the right) but it does hold true often enough to make it a good guess if you otherwise don't know.
But then we come to Japan. Japan drives on the left, yet Japan was never a British colony. What gives?
I actually wouldn't think this much of note, but I get asked the why of this often enough by non-Japanese for it to stick in my brain as something people are curious about. Just last week I met a guy from Mexico who found it very frustrating that they drive on the left here and he repeatedly asked me why.
I thought it might be fun today to share the popular reason for this. Let's note that this is only the popular story among the Japanese, but scholars debate if it is actually true or not because historical records don't provide a lot of evidence for why they drive on the left side, nothing conclusive. But like I said, it's a fun and popular story, and it does seem plausible enough for us to accept in light of a lack of other evidence.
The story goes that they drive on the left side in Japan because of the samurai. You see, the samurai wore their swords on the left side so that it was easier to draw the sword with their right hand. According to the tale, samurai would walk on the left side of the road so that their swords would never accidentally bump into each other, which would be something of a faux pas.
The automobile didn't come until many years after the samurai class had been abolished, but the habit of walking on the left had been well established so that when cars did come it just seemed natural to drive on the same side they walked.
So there you go: it's all because of the samurai!
Created using Dall-e. Other that the fact that he's stabbing his own shoulder, it's not a bad picture.
Of course there are other theories; other more boring theories. One of these says it was simply because of British influence. America forcefully opened Japan to the world in 1853, but America soon fell into bloody civil war and lost her influence in Japan for many years, so Britain stepped in and became one of the strongest influences as Japan worked to rapidly modernize. It is thought that Japan took much engineering influence from Britain, including for the tram and street system, and these led to driving on the left side.
Or you know, maybe it was a combination of both. Who knows. Like I said, scholars seem unsure and they still debate this point. At any rate, the samurai sword story is a very popular one in Japan, so I think it's worth knowing about even if it's not entirely accurate.
❦
 |
David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon. |
You received an upvote of 89% from Precious the Silver Mermaid!
Please remember to contribute great content to the #SilverGoldStackers tag to create another Precious Gem.
Wow! It's fun to read about these types of theories. Samurai left behind many myths, interesting customs, rumours, and stories. I've heard that swords shouldn't bump into each other when Samurai walk, but I've never heard about driving! It was enjoyable to read.
British culture predates American culture in Japan but after World War II, almost everything changed to the American style, except for some European and British cultures which were already in Japan. Japan is truly a mixed culture. I always think the Taisho era was very modern.
I like the fashion of the Taisho era. The モボ and モガ styles, the mixture of old and new. It's very exciting. I enjoy looking at old Taisho photos. Early Showa style is interesting too. The middle age men wearing kimono, but also a fedora hat, western glasses and mustache. It's such an interesting contrast.
In the US though you are supposed to walk against the flow of traffic, so you would still be on the left side of the road...
I think few people know the walking rule or care, just like no one knows the bicycle rules. I don't know what the actually walking rules are in Japan, towards or against traffic. I see people walking on both sides, just like in the US, so I think they don't really care. In other places, however, like sidewalks or in the shopping mall, etc, when passing by people who are coming the opposite direction, people tend to always walk on the left here.
We used to have to watch videos on bicycle safety in school. They don't do that anymore. Over here some schools have a program called great expectations. Not all schools use it, but it helps with etiquette like that.
With bicycles specifically, I think fear of cars prevents a lot of bicyclists from following the rules exactly. In Japan, for example, you are suppose to always ride on the street and never the sidewalk. The sidewalk is for walking and it's dangerous for bicycles to be on there. But the roads are so busy that even when there is a bicycle lane, people are scared to ride in it so they ride on the sidewalk. When there isn't a bicycle lane, the correct thing to do is ride in traffic and use hand signals. But just like in the US, cars tend to completely ignore bicycles and try to drive past them, which is dangerous.
About the only bicycle regulation that people actually follow here is wearing a helmet. But then again, the only people following that one is middle school kids. Everyone else ignores it.
Wow, that is interesting. Yeah, it's just a lot of chaos out there.
Nice story, which I would like to believe. Kinda makes sense and I am sure most Japanese will agree to it as well. And also an interesting example of AI art even thought it is not perfect, as you have pointed out above. Anyways, thanks for the lesson :)
Glad you enjoyed. Yeah, it's an interesting story anyway, true or not.
The same theory goes for why we drive on the lefthand side in the first place. That the knights riding on horses were mainly right handed and if they gallop towards the enemy on the left hand side, they can fight on the right.
You know I never really thought about why the UK drives on that side originally. Makes perfect sense that it'd be the same reason.