CODE IN TOKYO

Inequality Appears in Train Lines: What the Keihin-Tohoku Line and American Streets Made Me Notice

A Moment on the Keihin-Tohoku Line

The other day, I was riding the Keihin-Tohoku Line.

For people outside the Tokyo metropolitan area, the Keihin-Tohoku Line is a JR train line that runs through Kanagawa, Tokyo, and Saitama. It also passes through industrial areas.

Because of that, many blue-collar workers and foreign workers use the line.

When the train arrived at my station and I was about to get off, a person who appeared to be homeless was standing directly in front of the door.

For a moment, everyone stopped.

We could not get off.

But this was Japan.

No one raised their voice. No one complained. People simply moved quietly around him and got off the train.

No one shouted, “Move.”

As I watched that scene, I thought that if this had happened on a subway overseas, the exchange might have become much rougher.

And I also thought something else.

In Japan, inequality appears in train lines.

The Atmosphere Inside a Train Car

People often say that residential inequality in Japan is less visible than in the United States.

That is partly true.

Japan does not seem to have areas divided as visibly as American slums and wealthy neighborhoods.

But that does not mean there is no inequality.

It only means that inequality appears differently.

I grew up in a town with many middle-class families.

Later, in my twenties and thirties, I lived along train lines where relatively wealthy people tended to live. Recently, I moved back my hometown.

Because I moved across different train lines and then returned, I started noticing things I had not noticed before.

The clothing, atmosphere, and overall feeling of the people inside the train are quite different depending on the line.

Of course, wealthy people live along every train line.

And even in expensive residential areas, there are people struggling financially.

So I do not mean to say that one specific type of person belongs to one specific train line.

But overall, each line has its own atmosphere.

To begin with, rent levels differ by train line.

When the people who live along a line differ, the atmosphere inside the train also changes.

To put it bluntly, there are moments on the Keihin-Tohoku Line when I sense a distinct working-class, lived-in atmosphere.

For me, that feeling slightly overlaps with the atmosphere I once felt on American subways.

Of course, this is only my personal impression.

The Visible Inequality I Saw in Los Angeles

Years ago, I visited Los Angeles.

I tried to enter a McDonald’s near an area that felt close to a poor neighborhood.

The inside of the restaurant was rough and not exactly clean.

Both the staff and customers seemed tense.

In the end, I left without buying anything.

After that, I went to an independently owned burger shop in Beverly Hills.

It felt like a different world.

The streets were clean, the shop was refined, and even the air felt different.

I remember being surprised that the world could change so much after only a few dozen minutes by car.

Inequality in the United States is very easy to see.

The streets are different.

The people walking there are different.

The shops are different.

Even the atmosphere is different.

It is not hidden.

That is why even travelers can notice it quickly.

Maybe Japan Only Makes Inequality Harder to See

What about Japan?

Japan also has inequality.

But it is not as visibly extreme as in the United States, where entire neighborhoods can feel like separate worlds.

That may be why many people think Japan is a country with relatively small inequality.

I am not sure that is the whole story.

Inequality has not disappeared.

It may simply be harder to see.

Everyone rides the same trains, stands on the same platforms, and uses the same convenience stores.

At first glance, it looks as if everyone is living in the same way.

But people live along different train lines.

They use different stations every day.

Over time, those differences appear little by little as the atmosphere of passengers and neighborhoods.

America does not hide inequality.

Japan is good at hiding it.

So the fact that inequality is less visible in Japan does not mean it does not exist.

When we ride the same train line every day, that inequality simply becomes part of the ordinary scenery.

What I saw on the Keihin-Tohoku Line was not just a story about seeing a homeless person.

It felt as if Japan’s usually hidden inequality had briefly shown itself on the platform.

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