Minding Your Manners on the Metro with Hideya Kawakita

In the mid-1970s, an advertising campaign appeared on the walls of the Tokyo metro, aiming to encourage travellers to show good manners. The campaign was designed by graphic artist Hideya Kawakita, known for having created the Tokyo metro map. Through various posters, this series shows western characters committing some of the most common social faux pas on the metro. 

A reminder of good practices from cinema stars

Between 1976 and 1982, public transport users saw Superman held up while running due to a piece of chewing gum stuck to his shoe, Father Christmas worrying about passengers’ alcohol consumption, and Chaplin’s Great Dictator reminding people to keep to themselves in their seat and not take up too much space with their legs. In his posters, Hideya Kawakita also calls on cinema stars like Marilyn Monroe, who reminds passengers not to leave their umbrella behind, and John Wayne, encouraging them not to smoke on the platforms or at peak times.

Decades later, the Tokyo metro is still trying to encourage passengers to display good etiquette. In 2008, illustrator Bumpei Yorifuji was asked to create a new campaign. The first series, Please do it at home, shows characters taken from the artist’s imagination doing their make up, making calls, or listening to music, all of which are activities that the Tokyo Metro company would prefer passengers to do in the privacy of their own home.

Manners Posters (1976-1982), by Hideya Kawakita is available on the artist’s website.