Why are people quiet on trains in Japan?

While you may be accustomed to chatting with your traveling companions while using public transportation, this is not the norm in Japan. Loud chatter or other disturbance is considered rude. You may notice that most Japanese train passengers stand or sit in silence. If you must converse, try to do so quietly.



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The sound of the trains is not notably loud.

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Guests are asked to limit conversation and speak in subdued tones. Phone calls are not allowed and all portable electronic devices must be muted or used with headphones (passengers using headphones must keep the volume low enough so that the audio cannot be heard by other passengers).

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Guests are asked to limit conversation and speak in subdued tones. Phone calls are not allowed and all portable electronic devices must be muted or used with headphones (passengers using headphones must keep the volume low enough so that the audio cannot be heard by other passengers).

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Loud chatter or behavior is usually frowned upon because it invades others' space. Avoid talking on the phone (put it on silent) and send messages instead. Eating and drinking should only be done on long-distance trains.

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Don't worry, you can visit Japan without speaking Japanese. You will find people are incredibly nice and welcoming. However, it would be a good idea to invest in a phrasebook to get a few key phrases and expressions. Your travel book might have a section on language to cover the basics.

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A lot of it depends on how close and how well-used the tracks are. If they're exempt (in the US) or unused then it's no different than living by a field since no trains use them. If they're rural and near a road, you'll get horn blasts as the train goes by as well as the noise from the train.

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Rail squeal is a screeching train-track friction sound, commonly occurring on sharp curves. Squeal is presumably caused by the lateral sticking and slipping of the wheels across top of the railroad track. This results in vibrations in the wheel that increase until a stable amplitude is reached.

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Different tracks have different amounts of vibration at different frequencies. And of course high speed routes even if you could feel them you may still not have time to get out of the way before a train obliterates you. So in some cases you'll feel the vibrations before the train comes and in others you may not.

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