Noise in Japan

It will not be surprising to anyone to know that downtown Tokyo is noisy.
Anyone who’s seen the big city on TV or in a movie, will have a pretty good idea of what it’s like; massive TV screens playing adverts 24 hours a day, music blasting out of every shop trying to attract customers, the constant stream of traffic flying by on every single road – it all adds up to a huge racket.
After a day out in Tokyo, I always seem to have a ringing in my ears for hours afterwards, which is why I couldn’t live in a central zone

I live an hour out of the city and there are still many noise-related problems.
The guys they hire to stand outside shops to scream and clap their hands are abundant wherever you go in Japan.
They are made even worse if those guys are given megaphones! If you’re coming back from a hard days work and just want to go home and relax, the last thing you want is someone to be shouting about the reduced price on toilet rolls directly into your left ear as you walk past. Very annoying.

Once inside a shop you are not left alone either; take a typical supermarket for example.
If the looped organ music versions of popular hits played constantly isn’t annoying, the several CD players and TVs dotted around the store selling various things certainly will be!
There is this lady at one of my local supermarkets who works in the bread department, she stands right next to a CD player playing a 20-second advert on loop, at full volume - all day!
I’d have either smashed the CD player to pieces after an hour or just killed myself, but she didn’t ever seem to notice!
This is a good explanation of why Japan is so noisy, Japanese people are masters of blocking out sound, why do you think everyone sleeps so peacefully on trains?

But so far I’ve only talked about shops and walking around the city, what about in your home, your place of rest, your quiet-zone?
Sorry to tell you, but you are not safe from noise there either!

A good way to start off illustrating this: did you know that everyday at 12.00pm and 5.00pm a siren and melody is blasted out around town, in every single place in Japan?

Are we being told when to eat lunch and return home from work?
Well actually no, it’s for the school children, but you can hear it everywhere you are. I guess it’s also in the case of announcements or if there was a huge earthquake or Godzilla attack.
But it really feels like we’re still in wartime sometimes, the other day I had the announcer tell people to get home quickly because there is a high level of toxicity in the air! I think this is most peculiar, especially as no one seems to pay any attention to it anyways.
Can’t they just have the speakers near the school, why not use it only in emergencies – why can’t it just SHUT UP for once!!

So what about the times between 12.00pm and 5.00pm, peaceful?
Well no actually.
Depending on the day, you’ll either have a scrap collecting guy patrolling the streets with a megaphone strapped to his van and pre-recorded tape playing, a tofu seller using the same deafening method to tell you about his handmade produce, or if you’re really “lucky” and it’s during election time (seemingly every 2 months in Japan) you’ll have not one, but several different politicians racing about the streets in huge vans, blasting out their message to everyone.

That last example is particularly annoying: “I’M VERY SORRY FOR DISTURBING YOU AT THIS TIME, BUT I’D LIKE TO TELL YOU ABOUT MY PARTY’S MANIFESTO. NUMBER ONE…..” is usually how they go. (But imagine it in barely comprehensible Japanese out of a crackly loudspeaker)

So you’ve survived a full day in a Japanese town, you finally get to sleep – nothing can disturb you now…..right?

Well about 4am is usually the time when the newspaper deliveries happen.
Are they made by electric vehicles like milkmen used to use? Are they quiet so not to wake people during the early hours? Hell, no!
The delivery guys use loud stuttering motorbikes or scooters that could easily wake a shallow sleeper. (of which there are none in Japan it seems)
Is there ever an end to the noise in Japan?

So imagine in Tokyo, you’d have all the background noise, plus all the other stuff I just mentioned, now you can see why I only go into Tokyo when I have to!

For people thinking of moving to Tokyo from London or New York and have no problems with the noise in their home city - please feel free to ignore everything I’ve just said, you’ll have no problems in the capital, or anywhere else in Japan.

For those who are coming from medium sized towns or smaller places, you should prepare yourself and choose carefully where you want to live, Japan is noisy, noisy place.

Final Word
Coming from a relatively quiet town, I am constantly annoyed by the noise here in Japan.
Similar people who enjoy peace and quiet in their home, should think carefully before moving to Japan, and if they do, they should make sure they live somewhere far away from a major city. Even then, you're not safe.
I guess this verdict depends on what kind of person you are, and what your aversion to noise is, but for me it’s very troublesome.
The most surprising thing about all this, is how Japanese people are seemingly invulnerable to loud sounds and can block out and ignore noise at will!
They say that the Japanese system makes it hard for foreigners to live here, but attacking our eardrums – that’s just ridiculous!
VERDICT: LOW POINT

Even more vans that patrol the streets noisily:
*Kerosene Van (during winter months)
*Tofu Van (at random times)
*Unwanted bicycles collector
*Baked potato vans (called Yaki-imo)
*Washing poles vans (selling poles to hang outside the window)
*Fire safety vans (organised by the Fire Brigade during winter, ring their bells loudly almost every night of the week)

I'm not making any of this up - it never ends!!