Attention on the street: Please, no E-Mails on the Go read!

over a decade Ago, you could move in Japan, even on crowded sidewalks, without that it ever came to physical contact. The courtesy of the Japanese people to avoid touching or shoving. Today, this mindfulness is often there. One reason is the advent of the Smartphones. Also in Japan, many pedestrians around, pay attention now more on the small screen in the Hand than on the people around you.

E-Mails on the Go to read

Patrick Welter

a correspondent for Economics and policy in Japan, based in Tokyo.

Minami-rinkan, a suburb of Yokohama with around 230,000 inhabitants, wants to counteract this bad habit with the law. The city Council decided on Monday a regulation, according to which Smartphones in public space when not in use may be. If the citizens receive E-Mails or messages you want to read in social networks, not to imagine, in the future, so to the side or in corners that you do not hinder the normal traffic. Penalties are provided for Breach of course.

Yamato is the first city in Japan that has decided such a cell phone ban while walking. It is based the regulation on a study, according to which of about 6000 pedestrians, around 12 percent used when you Go to their Smartphones.