Cars in Japan: Does Anime Have The Right Idea?
 

How common is it to have cars in Japan? Is it like a limo in America oe is it common?

Slight side note: I've seen how trains are in Tokyo, man, must suck being so cramped in there . . .XD

Cars are very common in Japan. Why would you think otherwise. Urban dwellers oftentimes can live without a car and simply use public transportation, but once one starts a family it gets harder to live without one.

Are people still associating a couple train lines in Tokyo during rush hour with the entire Japanese train system.



Oftentimes it looks just like this.

Car is a essencial tool for most Japan family. It is useful travel tool to take people to work, go to school or other ourside entertainment.

　　

The horizontal axis　　　GDP per capita
The vertical　　axis 　　 Number of cars per 1,000 population
日本 　Japan
ドイツ　Germany
米国　 USA

Trains in Tokyo are fine. People are almost always very quiet and they are respectful of your space, despite what they say on television. I've never had any bad experiences.

It depends on where you live. My house is in the countryside, and there is not much in the way of train or bus transportation, so owning a car is a necessity. My GF lives in Metro Tokyo, within walking distance of 2 train stations and 1 subway station, not to mention the bus stop in front of her building where buses stop every 5 minutes. Obviously, she doesn't really need a car.

I would like to add though that America's infrastructure and size kind of forces people to own cars, since the wealth in America is very unevenly distributed. Not to mention in Japan, (from what I see) the vast majority of cars are relatively new, whereas in America you will see tons of old beat up POS cars all over the place.

I always want to ask this. Is this for real??

YouTube - Japan MRT vs Singapore MRT

In my view, Japan is a one car per family society. The US a one car per person society. This is a generalization, of course, but it seems to fit quite well.

The costs of owning a car (taxes, parking, gasoline) in Japan outweigh it`s value for an individual in most cases. This is particularly true in the inner city, where the costs can outweigh it`s usefulness even if it IS a family.

I live right on the outskirts of a huge city. In our building there is only one family out of around 40 who own 2 cars. And at the same time I think there are maybe two families who don`t own a car at all. People who use cars for their job use a company vehicle, not their own. Even out in the deep countryside - where it`s an hour walk to a bus stop for a bus that comes every 4 hours... You still only see around 1.5 cars per family. Every other family seems to have 2 cars, but nothing more than that unless you own a company and have another for work.

Back when I lived in the US, everyone in the house of legal driving age who had a license had their own car. It was the same for pretty much everyone around. 4 cars in the driveway and maybe more in the garage seemed a pretty normal sight.

I have a car. A little Mitsubishi Minica.