Old meaning not young. Pretty much all crimes or any other forms of messy behavior worldwide are committed by young men.

But the median age in NYC is 38 and Tokyo is 45. (source: two Google searches I just did). That means a lot!

It's true they don't jump the gates often and they don't have loud panhandlers. Instead the societal transit ills are passed out drunks, suicides and molesters. (Not meaning these actually happen all the time, it's just my impression of what people talk about.)

> it’s pretty much everyone who is not filthy rich isn’t it?

Hmm, it's more about what you're doing, I think? Rich people use transit all the time if it serves their purposes afaik. One thing that helps in Japan is the culture of wearing face masks means you won't be recognized in public. (Obviously this doesn't work if you're like a 7' NBA player.)

For going between cities the trains are actually the nice expensive option, and flying or taking a night bus is cheaper.

But trains are also basically only good at carrying yourself. If you're traveling in a group, or carrying equipment with you, or don't want to walk a lot then you'd still want to drive or take a taxi locally.

> Pretty much all crimes or any other forms of messy behavior worldwide are committed by young men.

Pretty much all?

48% of all Japanese people above 15 (driving age is 18, mind you) commute by car[1]. In most Japanese prefectures a majority commute by car[2][3]. All data from the Japanese government.

“Everyone in Japan uses public transit” may hold some water in Tokyo and Osaka which is where most foreign tourists stay, but is simply not true outside urban cores and not even possible once you get to the “inaka” where the bus comes four times a day and the last train departed in 1995.

[1] https://www.stat.go.jp/data/kokusei/2020/kekka/pdf/lifestage...

[2] https://www.stat.go.jp/data/kokusei/2020/kekka/pdf/01-02-04.... scroll down to page 288

[3] https://www.stat.go.jp/data/chiri/map/c_koku/tsukin/pdf/2010... data is from 2010 but the trend is the same

while it's not an apples:apples comparison, in contrast, only 5% of American workers commute by public transportation[1], which means >90% commute by car. From this, one can make educated guesses on the socioeconomic status slices that make use of public transit for each respective group - 5% vs 50%

1. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publicatio...

That’s super interesting data, thank you.