Japan has a population over 127 million people in an area the size of California which has 38 million people.  Perhaps they have learned to be nice to one another because for them, life is "it's not about me, it's about us".

The Japanese don't own guns either.  It wouldn't be polite to kill someone, much less yourself. 

Here is a link to a pretty good article that really addresses the cultural orientation that the Japanese have:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/12/24/our-lives/politeness-beyond-words/#.UReLauhHnTA

I agree with BushFoote, I think it's even more basic than that.  I would submit, Perhaps it's a stereotype.   but maybe in Asian countries....  

society and community are bigger than the individual.  Here in the west,  it's the individual that is celebrated.  I'm sure part of cause for

the difference is the population density of the far east vs the west.  I can't say which is better.  Although as the population density grows I 

think you need society and community to overcome the individual.  Check out the murder rate in Japan (in 2006 the whole of Japan had 2 murders).  

Of course, that is what allows North Korea to last as long as it has.  And we must remember Fukishima and the bird flu scare as examples of what 

happens when conformity and being supplicant.  On the flip side,  you have Sarah Palin warning of death panels and George Bush railing about 

weapons of mass destruction.

What's happened to us in America?  We're 25th on the list of of OECD countries in Healthcare, 17th in Education and we have no manners --and this isn't only exhibited on the T.  When's the last time someone said 'thanks'when you held the door for them.  Surely we can do better.

There's just so little civility left in society.  It's pathetic.

What Jacoby overlooks is the overwhelming homogeneity of Japan, a nation with one of the lowest levels of diversiity of any kind in the world. As a result, everyone knows how to act without being reminded because cultural norms reinforce behavior each generation. Even young Japanese who might give off a whiff of rebellion in the way they dress (at least until they graduate into the workforce) know how to act in public. As one who spent five weeks in Tokyo this past summer, I can also attest that average Japanese still struggle with outsiders, and especially anyone whose skin is brown or black. In the U.S. we write everything down and need to remind ourselves of our manners because we're not -- and never were -- all one race, religion, ethnicity, or cultural heritage. We've always been a rough and tumble culture rooted in individualism and freedom, not group comformity, one reason why so many young Japanese I've met want to come to the U.S., if only for a while, to experience some of that same relative disharmony. Those seeking "order" neglect to understand its social roots, or its consequences. 

I think it's the college students more than anything.  I mostly ride on the Orange Line and on buses that originate from the Orange Line Forest Hills station, and not only is everyone very polite, more often than not some young man gives up his seat for me to sit down (I'm an overweight 47-year-old woman).  When I ride on the Green Line, it's young clueless college students who are often being drunk and obnoxious and don't give up their seats to the elderly and infirm.  To be charitable, I think it's because these young kids often come from cultures where they drive everywhere, so they are not used to the etiquette of using public transportation.

Thanks to all of the posters so far this morning who are displaying civility in their comments.

Yup, they are polite alright.  During my career I had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time there.  Once a person leaves the more "westernized" areas, it is still polite.  However, the Japanese may also be the biggest racists that exist on the planet. It is common outside the westernized areas to encounter "kinjaro" (sp?).  This is the polite way of the Japanese telling you that only Japanese are allowed in a restaurant, nightclub, etc.

On a JAL flight back from Japan, I heard the oh so polite Japanese businessman next me ask the Japanese stewardess if he could get a different seat because he did not want to sit next to the "Gajin" (me) which at its most polite is "alien" but is generally accepted to mean something more like an "animal" among Japanese.

I worked for a huge Japanese corporation for many years, they are polite, no doubt about it.  But they are not all that wonderful.  Picking up on their politeness would be great, not so much some of their other traits.

and the so-polite Japanese business men will walk right into a woman on the sidewalk if that woman does not step out of the way - had that happen to me!  And no doubt the so- so -polite Japanese men who grope women on the very crowded trains bow and apoligize to the woman whose breasts he has "accidently" squeezed or whose buttocks he has grabbed.  This column is a very superficial look at a still extremely patriarchial society.

Does the T ever measure the impact of a campaign?  Or does the T annually budget for a campaign, pay some agency to do it, and then look forward to the next budget and the next campaign.  This is ridiculous.

I lived in Japan, and used the trains everyday to get to and from the school I was attending. I saw an obviously deranged man who was verbally abusing his fellow passengers escorted, ever so politely, from the train by the conductor that staffs every Japanese train, so the driver can attend to the driving.

But I also saw a drunken "salaryman" sprawled across the upholstered bench seat of a late-evening train, partially sleeping off a bender on his way home. And many city commuter trains have "ladies only" cars, for women who are tired of being groped by men during crowded rush-hour commutes. Women who boarded other cars were still subjected to groping, and the deeply engrained cultural preference for "wa" (harmony) means that most women subjected to physical assault aren't likely to complain about it.

In spite of myself and my love of winter, I have become a snow bird. It's nice to be able to go for a walk anytime - in shorts. Here in southern Florida the manners and helpfulness of the clerks in all of the stores is particularly surprising, compared to what we encounter in the northeast, especially the urban areas. This doesn't mean I love the south; only that they (all socio-economic classes) have learned to be polite when it is appropriate and useful. Something the northeast hasn't bothered with.

First, Mr. Jacoby phoned this one in.  He relates an anecdote about one Japanese gentleman he met, and he refers vaguely to his other "observations."

Second, Japan is people of dutiful compliance, not courtesy.  It is such compliance that could marshal an island nation with little natural resources to mount a campaign to dominate the world by force and cruelty.  No thank you.  I'll take honest inconsiderateness any day on the T to lock-step "courtesy."