How to Identify Japanese People

I had a business trip to Japan at the end of October for a week. It was my first trip back to my home country after a year and three month absence. I visited my hometown and saw my family and friends. It was a great trip; I especially enjoyed eating my favorite Japanese dishes.

During my trip, I figured out my own way for identifying Japanese people at airports. I have summarized it in this blog post.

In old movies, Japanese people were typically depicted as people with cameras dangling off their necks. No one is like that nowadays, but I have found some features that represent today’s Japanese people. I’m not sure if it really works, but let us look at three examples.

1.    Men who wear high-cut, slim-fitting pants.

2.    People who put bandannas on their suitcases to identify them.

3.    People who walk with their heads down.

I would say that number one really works, in particular for business suits. In Japan, most suit stores sell only slim fitting pants because it helps to have a good figure. I never see Western people wearing slim-fitting pants as part of a business suits. Japanese people basically don’t have long legs. Tight and slim-fitting pants are really popular. They are popular not only for business suits but also for casual clothes. As for casual clothes, hipster pants and low-rise pants are commonly preferred by Japanese people. Since low-rise pants look best on slender people who are short or petite. Japanese people with short torsos will be able to get benefits from low-rise pants. Of course, I have some, but I don’t wear slim-fitting pants in the U.S.

I often see suitcases with bandannas at airports. I would say this really works for identifying Japanese people as well. Japanese people are really nervous about their luggage, so they often put a mark on their suitcases. A bandanna is commonly used as a mark because various designs of bandannas are sold at around $2 everywhere in Japan.

Number three is a typical way of walking for Japanese. This style of walking with one’s head down was formed from the lifestyle habit. Japanese people used to wear Japanese-style sandals until a few decades ago. Japanese people used to shuffle their feet along. They didn’t walk starting on their heel like Western people. From this habit, Japanese people came to walk with their heads down. Also, Japanese people are likely to use mobile gadgets, such as cellphones and potable gaming machines while they are walking.

As for me, only number three was true for me. I wonder how I looked to foreigners at Narita Airport and San Francisco Airport because I wore a San Jose Sharks hoddie with loose fitting pants and had soft-sided luggage with a Sharks tag…