That's What They Want You to Think

In general, public announcement posters anywhere can give you an idea of what a given society is worried about. On the London Underground, there is a range of different threats regarding what may happen to you if you beat up on the hard-working station staff. Or there were. I seem to remember the focus changing, encouraging you to feel sorry for staff who got beaten in the face by a member of public. This may have coincided with strikes by the Underground staff. There are posters encouraging you to not fall over on the escalators while blind drunk and kill yourself. And there is a significant portion of announcement bandwidth dedicated to forecasting, explaining and unconvincingly apologising for deficiencies in the transport infrastructure.

In Shanghai, the focus is on spit-control and attempting to brow-beat locals into letting passengers off the train before boarding.

In Cambodia there is no electrified underground railway. There isn't even a public transport system. But the public announcement posters still do speak their own story - child prostitution is not a good thing. Corruption must be weeded out. Hire a helicopter for discount rates this month, body guard included.

So what is the message of Japanese public announcement posters? These are in a league of their own in terms of message delivery, artistry, and the messages they are putting across.

Take a look at this one:　


　 The careless monkey is throwing litter everywhere !

　And without thinking of the consequences.


　 Such an irresponsible monkey!

But the best warning picture is the smoking monkey, which results in...

...the ignition of the pig's fart!


　 Here is another poster in the same series, describing lesser violations:



　 These monkeys have rocks on their heads. This is a play on words to imply that they are not moving out of the way.

　 Whereas this monkey (we have established by now that monkeys present a formidable challenge on public transport), is not paying attention to anyone around him. He can't see the poor bird, who has to perch on the luggage rack.

　 However, for the most serious of violations, only a plain-spoken, strongly-worded message will do:

"BAD PRACTICAL JOKES ARE INEXCUSABLE":


　 However, it isn't just a list of rules.

Here, the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau has taken the trouble to print this poster to let us know that it has...

...hired an additional two customer service managers!


　 I do get lost fairly quickly in the least complicated of environments, and Osaka's transport system is like a jungle inside a spaghetti bowl. That doesn't sound very appetising, but essentially it is very complicated. And Tokyo makes Osaka look like a village. So naturally, when possible, I do take the opportunity to quiz the station service managers on the optimal transport solution to my needs. And I can tell you that they are every bit as cheerful and helpful as shown in the picture below:


　 And they've even made a custom cartoon character for them:


　 So, the moral of the story is that Japan's transport worries seem to concern bad behaviour, and those who step out of line are punished by means of cartoon-monkey parody. And social exclusion.