A reblog from retronaut.co, received as a tweet by William Gibson (@GreatDismal). Brilliant! Have a gander at these Tokyo Subway Manner Posters, 1976-1982.

Three annoying train monsters (October 1982) – The three annoying train monsters shown in the poster are Nesshii (the sleeping monster), Asshii (the leg-crossing monster), and Shinbunshii (the newspaper-reading monster).

 

The Seat Monopolizer (July 1976) Inspired by Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator,” this poster encourages passengers not to take up more seat space than necessary.

Space Invader (March 1979) This 1979 poster pays tribute to the extremely popular Space Invaders video arcade game and encourages passengers to read their newspapers without invading the space of other passengers.

More over at retronaut! Sometimes I wish Europeans would invest as much energy as the Japanese in order to remind people of ‘subway manners’. Also, if they choose to do so, it’s usually not as funny.