Have you ever seen such indications in public transportation or facilities? There’s always a sign indicating the priority seats on trains and buses. If you are disabled, injured, elderly, or pregnant, you should be receiving a seat. Of course, if you are any one of the above, your seats are not limited to the priority seat space.

maternity_002
The “Maternity Mark” featured here is a mark created by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare with the aim of ensuring the safety and comfort of pregnant women. Some women have this mark on their or key chain, so please keep an eye out.

In Japan, thanks greatly to the highly developed public transportation system, such as trains, buses, and etc. pregnant women and people with children frequently use these services in their daily lives. Especially in urban areas, these vehicles are often necessary for transportation, such as taking people to and from medical appointments or school. We’ve heard that overseas visitors are often quite surprised by how crowded public transportation gets in Japan during the morning or evening rush hours. Obviously, these crowded conditions can be quite hard for pregnant women and people with children. At the same time, they are also very dangerous. Actually, there have been an increasing number of problems related to those issues in recent years. Newborns crying, the use of strollers, disputes over seat usage, and so on… To avoid problems like these, some of them have taken measures such as adjusting the times they use public transportation, but as you can probably understand, that doesn’t solve everything. We’d like to take this opportunity to ask everyone once again. Please be considerate of pregnant women and people traveling with children who use public transportation like these. Considering the thoughtfulness and cooperation of the people around us, there are certainly quite a few troubles and accidents that can be avoided. Please help us all work together to maintain a safe and comfortable society. Even a little compassion can be very helpful. Thank you!