This kind of feels like one of those weird mythologized Japanese culture posts
Japanese people jaywalk all the time - especially if you’re in a rural residential neighborhood.
this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
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I always though "jaywalking" was one of those US-only concepts. It certainly doesn't exist here¹ and I've never heard it from anybody else.
1 - We do have a fine for crossing a street close to the pedestrian crossing but not on it. It was applied at least once, and I know because it made the news. The person that received it contested it and didn't pay.
In France you're supposed to use crosswalks but drivers are always responsible if an accident occurs. Most drivers stop to let pedestrian across on crosswalks.
Except in Paris where drivers are entirely unaware of the concept of crosswalks. So most crosswalks have dedicated traffic lights, and those that don't might as well not exist.
Spent the better part of a week in naples earlier this year.
In naples you have crossing points but no lights as far as i can tell. traffic is constant so you like kind of have to walk out in traffic and hope it either stops or drives/rides around you.
Was an interesting adjustment i had to make
Are drivers in Paris even aware of the sidewalks? I was almost run over by a motorcycle on a sidewalk in Paris 20 years ago
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Living in Chofu, Tokyo and can confirm I see it everyday. The one exception I've learned is if there's children in view, people (seemingly) will not jaywalk as to not set a bad example. There's a bad apple every now and then but this largely holds up from my observation.
Also people will wait for someone to break the ice and jaywalk first, then a bunch will follow lolol.
It's worse, it's a fascist dogwhistle.
Hello Kitty with a rifle implies Maoist-tank.
How is the link relevant? Was there something specific or is it just general? I was wondering if this tweet uses some specific phrase mentioned in the link but can't seem to find it.
It's a fascinating read, but I didn't quite get the connection either. I can see how the quote can be understood as "submission of the individual to the State", but that's far from the only way I can see to take it.
It could certainly be a dogwhistle, but I'm also curious about the connection.
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BS. Jaywalking is an American concept.
...Invented by carmakers to indemnify their product from liability.
Wanna know how dumb my brain is? I almost told you that America isn't the only place people walk across the street not at an intersection. I thought you to be an idiot.
Alas, it is I. The idiot.
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All day long I watch Japanese jay walk as Japanese drivers roll stop signs and fail to signal their turns.
Someone find that man and tell him his country needs him.
He tried, but as an old man he's dead now.
Which is good because he did awful, awful things in the invasion of China.
I call BS. A lot of small residential streets in Japan don't even have sidewalks, and people just walk in the street as you should:
Sometimes they have sidewalk-ish areas, but they're not physically separate from the road, just painted differently. Again, people just walk in the street, and as a result cars go slowly. Pedestrians make an effort to get out of the way of cars when there are cars on the street to be polite and not inconvenience the driver, and cars drive slowly and carefully because their drivers acknowledge the street as a shared space.
Now, if the OP meant a two-lane road with crosswalks, a yellow dividing line, street lights, etc. Then that would be different. I could imagine someone objecting to walking across that kind of road without using a crosswalk, even if it was empty. Those aren't shared spaces, those are car spaces. It would be keeping with Japanese culture to obey the traffic laws there even if the road was empty.
Japanese cities are so lovely.
People regularly jaywalk in Japan as well. Not everyone, but it's not a rare sight either. It might have been different back when mama moved to Japan.
cars drive slowly and carefully because their drivers acknowledge the street as a shared space.
As someone who lives in Japan, I can assure you that this isn't true.
My life is going to end under the wheels of a hi ace or a mamachari.
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"... And in perfect Japanese she replied: Get fucked old man! Society already died! Get money, fuck bitches! Then she ran off making loud vroom vroom sounds."
"And then the entire neighbourhood clapped!"
Just a reminder that "jaywalking" is made up bullshit pushed by car manufacturers to shift the blame for pedestrian deaths onto pedestrians instead of drivers.
I was so confused as a child in the UK when after hearing about “jaywalking” being a crime for years I finally found out it meant “crossing the street”
Crossing the street without a street crossing license.
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That totally happened. In Japan residential streets often don't have sidewalks and drivers are actually considerate towards pedestrians.
What the hell is "jaywalking"?
the action of crossing a road somewhere where there’s no pedestrian crossing, or while it’s not the pedestrian’s turn
it’s a word that was invented by car lobbies to turn something done by humans for millennia (cross a road) into a shameful action, and in some places, a crime
Jay is also an old timey slur akin to hillbilly or redneck, a way to call someone uncouth
I appreciate appealing lies, tell me more.
She did not cross the street as an individual. She pushed a stroller, so we can assume she was with a baby, so there were two of them - a group. Thus, the old man did not speak about her. He spoke about himself as he was just about to
That's a cryptid
The first death is in the heart, Harry
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