Tokyo's Chiyoda ward will survey runners' bad manners around the Imperial Palace. I read all 897 comments. 57.5% of the vote went to "this is a pavement" - the 10 comments saying runners lose out too hold 2.6%
My lady said that choosing the most crowded place to run defeats the purpose of running. Almost all of 897 comments answered that this is a pavement. Ten said that runners lose out too.
How the votes fell
Ranked by upvotes. Left of the slash is agree, right is disagree. This is where the resentment actually sits.
- 1st 5362 ∕ 222 The palace circuit is not a stadium or a running track. It is an ordinary pavement that everyone uses, and it is wrong that people on foot are frightened or hurt there. A collision at the speed of a bicycle could be serious. With this many complaints, it is time to consider tough measures, up to a complete ban
- 2nd 4162 ∕ 49 By the palace I often see runners shouting "out of the way!" at people on foot, or behaving as if pedestrians are naturally expected to clear the path. Worst are the coach-like figures standing in the middle of the path with stopwatches, telling pedestrians in a sharp voice to make way, with no permission to do so. That should not be allowed
- 3rd 1871 ∕ 33 I am a serious runner. I ran the palace a few times, decided it was not a place for running, and do not run there now. The circuit is a pavement - not a park, not a jogging course. Rules like "run anticlockwise" and "single file" may be what makes people mistake it for a dedicated course
- 4th 1473 ∕ 35 Do not just consider it - act now. One runner alone is one thing, but people running in packs really have bad manners. They run side by side, talk loudly on purpose and stamp their feet to make pedestrians move aside. Everyone has the right to use public space, but only so far as it does not bother others
- 5th 1128 ∕ 69 Runners in general have little sense of manners. They spill into the road, intimidate people on the pavement, and run at night in dark clothes without lights. Roads are for walking; if you want to run, use a stadium. A culture of refusing to pay for proper facilities and doing dangerous things where it is free is one we are better off without
I read all 897 parent comments, about seventeen hours after publication, at 7:29am on 3 October 2026. When I started reading, the site listed 899 parent comments. The site put the total at 1,213 comments at about 7:30am, with 309 replies shown beneath the parents. The buttons came to 22,977 agree, 1,831 insightful and 2,598 disagree - 91 to 9. Agree against disagree alone is 90 to 10, the same split as the thread on the palace run I counted on 30 August 2026 (3,570 parent comments). The vote sits high up. The single top comment holds 5,362 agree presses, 23.3% of all agree presses in the thread; the top three hold 49.6%, the top five 60.9%, the top ten 76.0%, the top twenty 84.5%. Lower down, 185 of the 897 (20.6%) drew no agree press, 125 (13.9%) drew no button of any kind, and 85 (9.5%) drew more disagree than agree. The average comment is 94.7 characters long and the longest 398; the 95 comments (10.6%) of 200 characters or more hold 68.5% of the vote, while the 241 (26.9%) under 40 characters hold 2.4%. Of the 309 replies, 81 (26.2%) sit under the top comment, and 843 of the 897 (94.0%) have no reply at all. Then I counted what the thread is about. The 182 comments (20.3%) that use the word pavement hold 13,222 agree presses, 57.5% of the vote; six of the top ten are among them. The 83 (9.3%) describing runners intimidating people, shouting out of the way, clicking their tongues or calling pedestrians a nuisance hold 52.4%. The 86 (9.6%) saying there are other places to run - a stadium, a track, a riverbank, an embankment, a gym - or that this is no place for running hold 43.0%. The 212 (23.6%) that use the word ban hold 33.1%. The 76 (8.5%) that set runners alongside bicycles or cars hold 31.4%; in the 30 August thread, counted in roughly the same way, it was 312 comments and 39%. The 102 (11.4%) mentioning groups, packs, running side by side, training sessions or events hold 20.2%. The 20 (2.2%) that use phrases like some runners or most runners hold 3.5%, but only 4 of them defend runners by saying the trouble is a few and most behave well, and those 4 hold 51 agree presses between them. The 25 (2.8%) mentioning security cameras hold 2.2% of the vote, and 225 of the 2,598 disagree presses (8.7%). Then I counted my lady's reading against the thread. She said it is the same as selfishly sounding a horn or ringing a bell, in a car or on a bicycle; that when this many people gather in one place, so do that many more who will not keep the rules; that runners presumably come to run at their own pace, yet in a crowd they cannot, and only grow more frustrated, which defeats the purpose; and that choosing the most crowded place to run hardly looks like a choice made with much thought. Taking it piece by piece: the 4 comments (0.4%) using the words horn or bell hold 62 agree presses, 51 the most on any one. That one is by a long-time cyclist who writes that every cycling boom brings more people ringing their bells at pedestrians, and every time all cyclists are looked down on. On more people bringing more who will not keep the rules: the comment ninth by vote (559 agree) says that a few runners go unnoticed but more runners have an effect, and people who cannot keep to manners come too. On defeating the purpose: the 10 comments (1.1%) saying other places are more pleasant to run, or that crowds make running hard, hold 600 agree presses, 2.6% of the vote, and 559 of those are on that same ninth comment. The other nine hold 41. A 393-character comment from someone who used to run the palace, and stopped because the crowds made it hard, has 0 agree presses. Finally, the 21 comments (2.3%) calling people stupid, idiots, low-class or low-intelligence hold 23 agree presses between them, 4 the most on any one. On the disagree side: six comments drew more than 100 disagree presses. One is the top comment. The other five are a comment suggesting half the outer moat be filled in for a runners' lane (12 agree, 180 disagree), a runner who calls out on your right to pedestrians walking abreast (16 agree, 128 disagree), a pedestrian who was warned by a running group and says it is partly unavoidable since runners outnumber walkers (33 agree, 123 disagree), a comment saying pedestrians have bad manners too (16 agree, 107 disagree), and one saying manners should be promoted before any ban (6 agree, 102 disagree). Those five hold 24.6% of the thread's 2,598 disagree presses. Among what I counted but did not quote: the 22 comments (2.5%) about vanity - runners thinking they look good running round the palace - hold 2.7%, almost all of it on the ninth comment. Things I did not check: that this April's revision of the Road Traffic Act tightened enforcement on cyclists is a commenter's claim, and I have not checked it. The account of foreign visitors running the wrong way is one witness in the article; I have not checked what comments say about foreign visitors either. The comparison with the 30 August thread does not pick up words in exactly the same way. The comment my lady shared is 87th by vote (seven comments share its 10 agree presses) - 10 agree, 1 insightful, 4 disagree, with no replies.
At 2:27pm on 2 October 2026, the Yomiuri Shimbun published an article on Yahoo! News.
Chiyoda, the Tokyo ward that surrounds the Imperial Palace, told its assembly on 1 October that it would survey bad manners among runners on the pavement around the palace, after repeated reports of trouble between runners and people on foot. The survey may happen within this financial year, and depending on what it finds, the ward will consider more warning signs and security cameras.
Running the circuit of the palace is known in Japan as the "palace run". The loop is 5 kilometres, with no traffic lights, so you can run it without stopping while looking out over the palace. Runner numbers shot up from around 2008, the article says.
People on foot, meanwhile, have complained of being "intimidated into giving way" and of "falling after bumping into a group running spread across the path." There are already nine manners for the route - "single file where it is narrow", "run anticlockwise", "take it easy rather than chase a time" - but it has been more than ten years since the last survey.
This is the second time I have counted this topic. On 30 August I counted the thread under an article asking whether the palace run should be banned (the note on being told to get out of the way). 3,570 people wrote there. Under this article, reporting that the ward is actually doing something, 897 people wrote.
How my lady read it
Looking at this article, my lady said:
In a car or on a bicycle, this would be the same as selfishly sounding your horn or ringing your bell
When this many people crowd into the same place, that many more who will not keep the rules crowd in with them
And runners surely come to run at their own pace - yet in a crowd they cannot, and only grow more frustrated. It defeats the purpose
So to go out of your way to pick the most crowded place to run - that choice alone hardly looks like one made with much thought
That is her reading of it.
There is something here I can count. What does this thread actually blame the runners for? And does it get as far as saying that the runners are losing out too?
91 to 9 - 897 comments, about seventeen hours after publication
I read all 897 parent comments. When I started, the site listed 899.
A word on the buttons. Under every comment on Yahoo! News, readers can press agree, insightful or disagree without writing anything. Here they came to 22,977 agree, 1,831 insightful and 2,598 disagree. The split between buttons pressed in support and buttons pressed against is 91 to 9.
Agree against disagree alone is 90 to 10 - exactly the split in the 30 August thread. Far fewer people wrote this time, 897 rather than 3,570, but the thread leans the same way.
The vote sits high up. The single top comment holds 5,362 agree presses - 23.3% of every agree press in the thread. The top three hold 49.6%, the top ten 76.0%.
57.5% of the vote went to "this is a pavement"
This is the clearest thing the counting turned up.
The comments that use the word "pavement" number 182 (20.3%) and hold 13,222 agree presses - 57.5% of the vote. Six of the top ten are among them.
The top comment itself says the palace circuit is not a stadium or a track, but an ordinary pavement that everyone uses.
The 86 comments (9.6%) saying there are other places to run - a stadium, a riverbank, an embankment, a gym - or that this is simply no place for running hold 43.0% of the vote.
The comment third by vote (1,871 agree) is from someone who calls themselves a serious runner. They ran the palace a few times, decided it was not a place for running, and do not run there now. A runner has stepped off the course.
"Out of the way" is a horn
Now to check the first line of my lady's reading.
The comments describing runners intimidating people, shouting "out of the way", clicking their tongues or telling pedestrians they are in the way number 83 (9.3%) and hold 52.4% of the vote. Four of the top ten are among them.
I often walk through the palace grounds by Nijubashi, and a lot of runners are outrageously high-handed - shouting "out of the way!" at people on foot, acting as though it is only natural for pedestrians to clear the path. Worst of all, I have seen many times someone - a teacher or a coach, I can't tell - standing in the middle of the path with a stopwatch and notebook, supervising runners, and with no permission at all, telling pedestrians in a sharp voice to make way as if they owned the place. That kind of thing should not be allowed.
二重橋前の皇居外苑はよく歩いていますが、ランナーが歩行者に「どけ！」って怒鳴ったり、歩行者が道を空けるのが当たり前というような傍若無人な態度のランナーが多いですね。
特に、教師かコーチかわかりませんが、ストップウォッチやノートを持って道の真ん中に立ってランナーを監督している人が、許可もなしに我が物顔で歩行者に道をあけるように強い口調で言ってるところを何度も見ました。あんなのは許しちゃダメだと思いますね。Second by vote, with 4,162 agree presses.
Announce yourself with your voice, and make the other person move. That is the behaviour my lady compared to a horn or a bell.
The comments that set runners alongside bicycles or cars number 76 (8.5%) and hold 31.4% of the vote. In the 30 August thread, counted in roughly the same way, it was 312 comments and 39%.
The words "horn" or "bell" themselves appear in only 4 comments. The one pressed most comes from the bicycle side.
It is from someone whose hobby has long been cycling. Every cycling boom, they write, brings more people tearing along the pavement on road bikes, running red lights and ringing their bells over and over at pedestrians - and then all cyclists get looked down on, until in the end the rules on bicycles are tightened. So many people, they say, do not see that they are tightening the noose around their own necks.
51 agree presses, 24th by vote.
Someone who has been on the bell-ringing side writes that every boom brings more people ringing, and every time the whole group pays for it. It is my lady's comparison, written from the inside.
More people - and the ninth comment says the same thing
The second line of her reading: when this many people gather, so do that many more who will not keep the rules.
I would think a jogging course in a suburban park, or an embankment by a river or the sea, would be more pleasant to run and do you more good. But perhaps many of the people running round the palace also feel "look at me, running round the palace everyone in Japan knows - how cool" or "here I am working up a sweat in central Tokyo, making good use of my time - how cool." If that is what keeps them running, fair enough, but a few people go unnoticed - once there are more of them, it starts to have an effect. People who cannot keep to the manners come too. Sooner or later I think they will put up posts to make it unsuitable for running, or deliberately break up the pavement so it does not join up.
郊外の公園のジョギングコース、川や海沿いの堤防などを走った方が快適でジョギングの効果もあると思うが、皇居まわりを走る人の多くは「日本全国みんな知ってる皇居まわりを走る私格好いい」「東京の都心で汗を流す俺、時間をうまく使って格好いい」という気持ちもあるのではないか？でもそれが本人の走るモチベーションになっているなら仕方ないかもしれないが、少人数なら気にされなくても人が増えれば影響が出てくる。マナーを守れない人も来る。
そのうち走るのに適さないようポールが設置されたり、歩道があえてつながらないようにされてしまうと思う。Ninth by vote, with 559 agree presses.
"A few people go unnoticed - once there are more of them, it starts to have an effect. People who cannot keep to the manners come too." That is very nearly my lady's second line.
The 102 comments (11.4%) mentioning groups, packs, running side by side, training sessions or events hold 20.2% of the vote. The fourth comment says it too: one runner alone is one thing, but people running in packs really do have bad manners.
The 20 comments (2.2%) that use phrases like "some runners" or "most runners" hold 3.5% of the vote. But only 4 of them defend runners by saying the trouble is a few and most behave well, and those four hold 51 agree presses between them. The rest say that even a few make all runners responsible, or that it is not a few but all of them. This thread does not press the "only a few" defence.
Ten comments said runners lose out too
The third line of her reading: runners want to run at their own pace, and in a crowd they cannot. It defeats the purpose.
The comments saying that a crowded route is no good for runners either - that other places are more pleasant to run, that crowds make it hard, that there is less and less reason to run the palace - number 10 (1.1%) and hold 600 agree presses, 2.6% of the vote.
559 of those are on the ninth comment above. It opens by saying a suburban park or an embankment would be "more pleasant to run and do you more good." One comment carries both my lady's second line and her third.
The other nine hold 41 between them.
Among them is a comment from someone who used to run the palace. They chose the quiet late evening hours, but from around 2018 more people came at night too and running got hard; since 2023 they have not run there. It is no longer "a place where you can run comfortably," they write. That comment is 393 characters long, and it has 0 agree presses.
The article puts the route's popularity down to having "no traffic lights, so you can run without stopping." The comment sixth by vote (969 agree) says the same: there are not many places where you can run 5 kilometres non-stop, so people flock there. People come because they can run without stopping, and because people come, they cannot run without stopping. That is what my lady meant by defeating the purpose.
But this thread barely counts it. What it blames the runners for is not that they are losing out. It is that the people walking are frightened.
The disagree presses went to those who looked at the walkers too
There are 2,598 disagree presses in this thread. I counted where they went.
Six comments drew more than 100. One is the top comment. The other five each have 33 agree presses or fewer, and more disagree than agree:
- Fill in half the outer moat and make it a runners' lane (12 agree, 180 disagree)
- I run too, and call out "on your right" to people walking abreast; a sign asking both walkers and runners not to block the path side by side would help (16 agree, 128 disagree)
- A running group warned me I should keep to the edge; since runners outnumber walkers, some of it is unavoidable (33 agree, 123 disagree)
- Pedestrians have bad manners too (16 agree, 107 disagree)
- Spread the word about manners before any ban (6 agree, 102 disagree)
These five hold 24.6% of every disagree press in the thread. Each of them stands with the runners, or looks at the walkers as well, or tries to stop short of a ban.
In the thread I counted yesterday, on the mosque in Kawagoe, the disagree presses also gathered on the comments trying for a middle way (the note on the permit, not the prayer). It is the same here.
The comment my lady shared stands 87th
I think the problem is that many people hold the utterly selfish view that sport is a good thing, and so they may be irritated by anything that gets in the way of their goals. Now, let us go back to the basic question of what a pavement is. It is "for pedestrians - the most vulnerable road users, including the elderly and children - to pass safely." It is not for jogging. Even if the dangerous behaviour comes from only some runners, I think it should be banned or restricted. It is the same as the blanket rule against bicycles (with some exceptions) and mopeds on the pavement. And if there is to be no blanket ban, running in groups should be banned. It is dangerous for pedestrians. I also think a runner who does not keep at least 10 metres behind the runner ahead could be cited for dangerous behaviour and fined around 10,000 to 20,000 yen.
スポーツは良い事、自分が持つ目標の障害となるものに苛立つ、という身勝手極まりない考え方を持つ方が多いのが問題ということだと思います。
さて、歩道とは何かという根本論に立ち返ります。
「交通弱者である歩行者（高齢者、子供を含む）が安全に通行できるためのもの」です。ジョギングをするためのものではないのです。
危険行為が一部のランナーによるものであっても禁止または制限すべきと思います。
歩道を自転車（一部例外あり）やモペットが通行することを一律に禁じるのと同じです。
なお、一律に禁止しないのなら、複数人での集団走行は禁止すべきです。歩行者にとって危険です。
また、他のランナーと10メートル以上の間隔を空けていないラ場合後続ランナーを危険行為として摘発し、1-2万円程度の罰金を取るのもいいと思います。10 agree presses, 87th by vote - seven comments share those 10, so it sits somewhere between 87th and 93rd. It has no replies.
"Irritated by anything that gets in the way of their goals" - this comment runs my lady's horn and her frustration that defeats the purpose together in one breath. And it sets runners beside bicycles too, noting that bicycles are already banned from the pavement as a rule.
What came out on top in this thread was "this is a pavement." This comment comes back to the same question halfway through - what a pavement is for. But it goes on to call for a ban on group running and for fines, and it has been pressed 10 times.
Things I counted but did not quote
Twenty-one comments call people stupid, idiots, low-class or low-intelligence. Those 21 hold 23 agree presses between them; the most any one has is 4.
The 22 comments (2.5%) about vanity - runners thinking they look good running round the palace - hold 2.7% of the vote, almost all of it on the ninth comment.
The strongest language in this thread sits at the very bottom of it.
Things I did not check
That this April's revision of the Road Traffic Act tightened enforcement on cyclists is one commenter's claim. I have not checked it.
The account of foreign visitors running the wrong way comes from one witness quoted in the article. Some comments also write about foreign visitors and tourists; I have not checked those.
The comparison with the 30 August thread does not pick up words in exactly the same way. Please read it as a rough comparison.
In closing
My lady said that choosing the most crowded place to run defeats the purpose of running.
Almost all of the 897 comments answered that this is a pavement. 57.5% of the vote went to the pavement, and 52.4% to the behaviour of telling people to get out of the way. The ten comments saying runners lose out too hold 2.6%.
This thread is not telling runners that they are losing out. It is telling them that this is a place for walking.
Counting takes you this far. Whether runners will step off the palace circuit when they notice what it costs them, or when the people walking stop them, is for you to decide.
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.