Japan can’t make up etiquette rules for superfast train

Accomplishing intricate tasks while ensconced in a moving vehicle is nothing short of an art, requiring an inordinately high degree of skill, precision and patience. Applying makeup on trains would certainly qualify as one such activity.

And even if it is done aboard Japan’s excellent, superfast and super smooth trains, it is not easy. That innumerable Japanese women choose to do so while commuting should, therefore, be seen as a testament to their steady hands as well as that country’s steady trains. Indeed, undertaking such a daedal exercise on the Indian railway system — or any other public transport — would be foolhardy unless the intention is to emerge looking like Heath Ledger as the Joker.

So, a Japanese train company branding this activity as ‘ugly’ in a promotional video on ‘train etiquette’ does seem churlish. Its call to women to desist from such exertions has justifiably drawn all-round criticism. There are surely more unpleasant goings-on within train carriages such as talking too loudly and carrying too much baggage — infractions Indian commuters hardly ever protest about — that need to be curtailed rather than mere mascara and lipstick application.

With this promo airing soon after the recent judgment upholding an old law that decrees married couples must use the same surname, Japan seems to be smudging its copybook when it comes to gender sensitivity. More than cosmetic changes are clearly needed in certain quarters there.