A Japan is perhaps the only country were priority seats, which are of a different color from the regular seats, are designated for the elderly and disabled on trains and busses.

The need for these priority seats is evidence that there are many Japanese who do not offer their seats to the elderly.

This can particularly be seen in the younger generation. Compared to the strict discipline parents in other countries mete out to their children, children in Japan are overindulged, which may be a remote contributing factor explaining this phenomenon.

One often comes across a mother in Japan get on a train and rush to get her child seated in the first available seat she can manage to find. The child expects to get a seat and becomes unmanageable when the expectation is not met. There are even people who offer their seats to these spoiled brats.

Bedtime is not observed as strictly in Japan as in other countries, and Japanese parents also pamper their children by buying them nearly everything they ask for. Being raised spoiled, these self-centered children grow up feeling they have every right to be seated.

Also, the children of today are not as strong as before although they are built better. They are unable to stand for long periods of time. Japanese with sense frown at the sight of them sunk in a crouch along the roadside.