"Should the Imperial Palace run be banned?" I counted 3,570 comments — 90 percent agreement, and the page is written by the people who were told to get out of the way
The cyclist's bell, the driver's horn — the moment someone decides you are in the way, they notify you and expect you to move. The page is filled with testimony from the people on the receiving end.
How the votes fell
Ranked by upvotes. Left of the slash is agree, right is disagree. This is where the resentment actually sits.
- 1 9869 ∕ 614 Paths like this are called footpaths or promenades — they exist for walking, nothing else. I walk my dog on my local riverside promenade every day, and there is no end of groups running several abreast and racing bikes flying past. The bikes especially are right behind you before you notice. Think for one moment about who has priority
- 2 9420 ∕ 251 Sunday mornings the path is jammed with Tokyo runners, and every pedestrian is minding their back and being pushed to the edge. The runners think nothing of it — their own comfort and convenience come first. And as always, the authorities say they are aware and do nothing, while the media miss the point. Nothing will change until there is a real collision
- 3 7308 ∕ 141 Some say don't rush to a ban, but telling a pedestrian — the person with first priority — to "move" gets things exactly backwards, as if runners had the right of way. Runners and cyclists should think about the fear a walker feels when someone overtakes at full speed from behind without warning
- 4 4903 ∕ 297 I was walking with my family when a sweat-drenched runner slammed into me from behind. He apologised, but his sweat was on me and it was disgusting. When you overtake a pedestrian, call out, keep a safe speed and distance. If you cannot do that, do not run on a footpath
- 5 4104 ∕ 83 Running on a footpath is fine in itself, but people doing competition-level speed should not do it where walkers are. If a pedestrian suddenly changes direction, they cannot react. In driving terms it is overtaking pedestrians and cyclists without slowing down — an astonishing lack of common sense. Use a gym, or slow down whenever walkers are around. That much is basic
I read all 3,570 top-level comments. The buttons: 60,817 votes of "I relate" against 6,750 of "hmm" — 90 percent agreement, with "I see" pressed 3,564 times. 408 comments — 11 percent — drew more objections than support, and the top ten comments hold 73 percent of all agreement. Counting the content: the largest current is danger, contact and fear — 452 comments worth 27,111 votes, 45 percent — framed not as annoyance but as safety. Comments comparing runners to bicycles, bells and car horns: 312 worth 23,423 votes, 39 percent. "There are other places to run — parks, gyms, riversides": 276 comments worth 19,163 votes, 32 percent. Comments touching the word "ban": 777 worth 17,578 votes, 29 percent. The plain principle that a footpath belongs to walkers: 239 comments worth 14,454 votes, 24 percent. Comments about the verbal abuse itself — "move," "you're in the way" — number 452 worth 9,320 votes, 15 percent, several of them first-person accounts of being sworn at while overtaken. Calls for mutual consideration and manners: 661 comments worth 7,111 votes, 12 percent. Proposals for rules, time slots or dedicated lanes: 424 comments worth 5,467 votes, 9 percent. The theory that palace runners are performing for an audience: 74 comments worth 3,948 votes, 6 percent. The most visible voice on the other side — "this is a manners problem, not a reason to ban; inform people and Japanese will comply" — drew 78 votes of support and 871 objections. On this page, the side hesitant to ban lost the vote.
First, what happened.
The footpath circling Tokyo's Imperial Palace — a roughly five-kilometre loop in the dead centre of the city, with no traffic lights to stop you — is the most famous running spot in Japan. The "Imperial Palace run" (kōkyo ran) is an institution: there are dedicated runner's stations nearby with lockers and showers, foreign visitors jog it in the morning, office workers run it at lunch. It is also, at the same time, a tourist route — the same pavement carries sightseers, elderly walking groups, and families with children.
Into that shared space landed a post on X: "Isn't it about time the Imperial Palace run was banned?" The article behind this page carries testimony of runners muttering "move" (dokeyo) and "you're in the way" (jama da yo) at pedestrians as they squeeze past, and one account of runners shouting at a group of elderly tourists. Chiyoda ward, which manages part of the roads, told the reporter it has received real complaints from residents about dangerous running and contact with pedestrians. The ward set out local manner guidelines back in 2013; it has not banned anything.
My own reading, stated honestly up front. This is the cyclist ringing a bell at a pedestrian. This is the driver leaning on the horn. The moment someone decides you are in their way, they notify you — and expect you to be the one who moves. On a footpath, the strongest party telling the weakest to get out of the way. I went to the comment page angry, convinced Japan has too many such people.
About 21 hours after publication, I read all 3,570 top-level comments — the second-largest page I have ever counted — and pressed my finger down the buttons.
The page is written by the people who were told to move
The count: 60,817 votes of "I relate" against 6,750 of "hmm" — 90 percent agreement. Only 408 of 3,570 comments drew more objections than support. Nothing like the FamilyMart page, where a third of the comments were contested — this page leans hard to one side.
The top comment states the principle in one breath.
Paths like this are called footpaths, or promenades. They are paths for unhurried walking, nothing else. [...] There is no end of people running several abreast or racing bikes flying past. The bikes especially are right behind you before you even notice, and it startles me constantly. I wish they would think, just a little, about who has priority.
こういう道は歩道もしくは遊歩道という名前がついてます。のんびり歩く道に他なりません。［…］数名で横に広がってランニングする人達や競技用自転車で飛ばす人が絶えません。特に自転車は気がつく前にすぐ後ろまで来ていて驚くことも多々あります。どちらか優先かを少しは考えて行動して欲しい。9,869 votes. The answer, it says, is written in the word itself — hodō, footpath, contains the character for "walk." And third place answers the article's core word, dokeyo, head on.
Apparently some are saying don't rush to a ban — but saying "move" to a pedestrian, the person who has first priority, is a spectacular misunderstanding of who has the right of way. Runners and cyclists should think about the fear a walker can feel when someone overtakes at full speed from behind, without any warning.
簡単に禁止にしないで欲しいとの声もあるらしいですが、１番優先されるべき歩行者に対しての“どけよ”旨の発言は（ランナー自身も歩行者との認識だから？）ランナー優先と勘違いも甚だしいです。
何も知らずに、後ろから猛スピードで追い越される歩行者は時には恐怖を感じる事をランナーや自転車は考えて欲しいです。7,308 to 141. Several commenters wrote first-person accounts of being sworn at while overtaken — "he came up fast from behind, and I've had abuse thrown at me several times as he passed" took 218 votes. Comments about the verbal abuse itself number 452, worth 15 percent of the page. What is missing is the other voice: in 3,570 comments, the people who say "move" barely show up to explain themselves. The page is written almost entirely by the people they said it to.
Pushed to the edge before anyone says a word
Second place is not a dramatic incident. It is a weekly scene.
Sunday mornings the path is jammed solid with Tokyo runners. Every pedestrian is minding their back and being made to walk along the edge. And the runners think nothing of it — their own comfort and convenience come first. [...] It will stay neglected until there is a real collision and it becomes a serious incident.
日曜日の午前中は都民ランナーで大渋滞する。
歩行者がみんな後ろに気を遣い端っこを歩かされている。
これを何とも思わないのが都民ランナー達。
自分達の気持ち良さや都合が優先。
［…］実際に衝突して大ごとにならないと放置されたまま。9,420 votes. Notice what it describes: nobody said "move" — the walkers moved first, minding their backs, yielding the path in advance. That is the page's largest current: danger, contact and fear, 452 comments worth 45 percent of the votes. And it is framed as safety, not comfort. The article quoted an opposing view — "a country that bans everything that makes someone uncomfortable becomes unlivable" — and a comment with 2,203 votes answered it directly: if a runner knocks down an elderly walker, that can mean a broken bone. "This is a problem because the outcome is worse than discomfort. After something happens, it is too late."
The comparison I walked in with was already on the page
I arrived carrying my bicycle-bell-and-car-horn analogy. The page had it before me. Comments placing runners alongside bicycles and cars carry 312 comments and 39 percent of the votes — the top comment reaches for racing bikes, and fifth place (4,104 votes) says that in driving terms this is overtaking pedestrians without slowing down. One comment made the analogy exactly.
For walkers and runners to coexist, it is obviously the runner who has to take care. Otherwise it is like a car on a residential street leaning on the horn behind a pedestrian, as if to say "move it." That is the starting premise. If the reckless ones who cannot manage that never go away, then a ban on running is what we deserve.
歩行者とランニングする人が共存するためには、ランナー側が気を付けないといけないのが当然です。生活道路で歩行者の後ろから車が「どけ～」と言わんばかりにクラクションを鳴らしまくっているようなもの。それが大前提。
そのマナーが守れない暴走者がなくならないのであれば、通行禁止（ランニング禁止）なってもしょうがない。I will be honest about the numbers: this comment took 8 votes. The analogy is perfect and the page ignored it. The big votes went not to clever comparisons but to things people saw with their own eyes — the top two comments are both eyewitness scenes. A Japanese comment page, I keep learning, rewards testimony over rhetoric.
One piece of context for readers outside Japan, because the analogy itself may need translating. In Japan, the car horn is close to taboo: it is for warning of danger, and leaning on it to hurry someone along reads as open aggression. The bicycle bell is the same — ringing it at a pedestrian to clear your path is considered rude enough that many Japanese cyclists never touch it and simply slow down instead. So when 312 comments reach for bells and horns to describe a runner muttering "move," they are not reaching for a mild image. They are filing the runner under the least forgivable category of street behaviour this country has.
The "don't ban it" side lost the vote
The other side deserves its count. The most visible voice against a ban — "this is a manners problem, not a reason to ban; tourists from abroad run here, office workers run at lunch; inform people of the problems and Japanese will comply; banning everything is wrong" — drew 78 votes of support and 871 objections. Proposals for time slots and dedicated lanes (424 comments, 9 percent of votes) and calls for mutual consideration (661 comments, 12 percent) also stayed small. This page's answer is not a design for regulation. It is one sentence: a footpath is for walking, and some people have stopped understanding that.
If you have read this site for a while, you have seen this shape before. The train-photographer page had it too: a hobby that is harmless in most hands, a loud minority that treats public space as reserved for them, and a comment page that has stopped distinguishing — because from the receiving end, you cannot tell in advance which runner is the polite one. The pattern in Japan tends to run one way: the space stays open for years on goodwill, the incidents accumulate, and then one day the rule arrives all at once and never leaves. One commenter here (800 votes) put the pattern plainly: running is fine, but plenty of events in Japan have ended up cancelled or banned because of the few who cannot see anyone around themselves.
And my own scoring, since I promised honesty. The behaviour I described — people who notify you that you are in their way and expect you to move — exists; the article's testimony and the page's first-person accounts confirm it. But I walked in angry, believing Japan has many such people, and the votes showed me the opposite picture. All 60,817 votes of agreement are stacked on the side condemning the "move" people. A loud few, and a quiet majority counting them — this page's 90 percent is the majority.
For visitors — how to walk the palace loop
If you visit Tokyo, some of this page is practical advice.
The palace loop is genuinely famous among runners — five kilometres, no traffic lights, and plenty of foreign runners on it every morning. But the principle this page confirmed with 3,570 comments and 90 percent agreement is that it is a footpath, not a running course. If you run it: pedestrians first, slow down to overtake, never run several abreast. If you walk it: know that runners come from behind, and keep your group from spreading across the path.
And if someone behind you ever mutters dokeyo — "move" — it is not you who got Japan wrong. Sixty thousand button presses say the person who got it wrong is the one talking. Most Japanese people are on your side of that word.
Comments are quoted verbatim in the original Japanese, with the source linked, commenter names withheld, and quoted only as far as the commentary requires. Translations are mine. Source articles may expire (retrieval dates noted). The substance of this piece is the author's commentary.