I’ve mentioned before that I work part-time in Sakae, Nagoya.
Going on about three years now — at this point I practically live there.
I’ve seen hit-and-runs happen right in front of me, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve called 110.
Something I’ve been thinking about lately: the nighttime public safety has been getting gradually worse.
Some observations:
· The area covered by touts has expanded.
They used to stay within the entertainment district, but now there are touts at every intersection near the train station and around the hotels too. Getting very irritating.
· Illegal parking has become more brazen.
Since parking meters stop functioning at night, there are almost no legal on-street parking spots after dark. Parking by the road edge is bad enough, but double-parking, parking in crosswalks, and parking right at intersections — I can’t understand the mindset of people who do that. At night, cars move faster, and I’ve witnessed countless near-misses where a driver turning at an intersection couldn’t see pedestrians because a parked car was blocking the view. And often the driver was on their phone at the same time. Genuinely dangerous.
On top of that, with Expo 2005 running, Aichi should be showing itself at its best to the world — and yet the prefecture has the worst traffic fatality rate in the country. Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.
Visitors from other parts of Japan are probably shocked by the traffic behavior here.