"If You Can Get On With a Stroller, That's Not a Packed Train Anymore": Japanese Riders on Strollers in Tokyo Rush Hour

What Japanese people said — picked from the top 200 of 1,921 comments

• People saying the other passengers should just move to a different car don't know what a big-city rush hour is.

  他の乗客が車両を替えろとか言ってる人は、都会の通勤ラッシュを知らない

  — @masaya1999Most liked525 likes

• The packed train I know about, you can't get a stroller onto it (too crowded, physically) 😂

  私の知ってる満員電車ってベビーカー乗れない（混みすぎて物理的に）と思う😂

  — @user-fe5ky1zi9u481 likes

• On a train that's reasonably empty, I have never once seen passengers fail to clear the dedicated space when a stroller comes in. The problem is how high the demand is, telling people to be considerate in conditions where being considerate isn't possible.

  ある程度空いてる電車でベビーカー入ってきて、専用スペースを開けない乗車客見たことないわ。 配慮出来ない環境下で配慮しろって思っちゃう要求の高さに問題があると思うわ。

  — @spmt_r9v100 likes

• Nobody pictures the same level of crowding when they say packed train, which is why the argument keeps drifting apart.

  満員電車の混み具合が全員同じ認識じゃないから議論が乖離している

  — @あんず-h2e73 likes

• I'd like the people saying the nice-sounding things to get on a packed train themselves first and try to open up space for a stroller that boards after them. It isn't a question of whether you make room. You can't.

  綺麗ごと言ってる人達で、まず満員電車に乗って、後から来たベビーカー分のスペースを空けれるかやってほしいね。 空ける空けないじゃなく、空けれるわけない。

  — @meroso3018347 likes

• I'm an adult man and there have been times in there when I felt a bone was about to break, so putting a baby into a packed train is not sane.

  成人男性の自分でも骨折れそうになったことあるのに、赤ちゃんを満員電車に入れるなんて正気の沙汰じゃない。

  — @storlike338 likes

• Tokyo's packed trains really are on a completely different level. They are genuinely awful.

  東京の満員電車は本当にレベルが違いすぎるのはある、あれまじでヤバい

  — @Pippi12225 likes

• It isn't that people are cold, you just can't get on. Not in that morning rush hour. The child would be crushed.

  冷たいというか、乗れないよ。あんな朝の通勤ラッシュに。子どもが潰れるわ。

  — @ぴっぴ-q2n28 likes

• People are only warning you that a packed train will crush the stroller, and answering that with "you're intolerant of children!" is fatally off the point, and far too much of a victim mentality.

  満員電車はベビーカーつぶされちゃうよって忠告してるだけなのに、子供に不寛容だ！っていうの致命的にずれてるし、被害者意識が強すぎる

  — @captain_tokyo460 likes

• What is the point of comparing European trains with Japanese ones. A packed train where you never touch another person and a train where people get lifted off the floor are not comparable things.

  欧州の電車と日本の電車で比較して何になるんだろう。 他人と触れあわないレベルの満員電車と人が浮くレベルの電車では、比較対象にならんだろ。

  — @goririmaster1483107 likes

• This is a packed-train problem, isn't it. In central Tokyo the crowding can reach a level where even adults hesitate to board, so that safety question has to be kept separate.

  これ、「満員電車」の問題よね？ 都内とか、大人でも乗車を躊躇する混雑の満員度だったりもするので、そういう安全の問題は分けないとなぁ。

  — @takumori-b5z37 likes

• Honest question: on a super-packed train, if I stagger and body-check a stroller, or put my hand down inside the stroller and the baby gets hurt, am I liable?

  素朴な疑問なんだけど、超満員電車で自分がよろけた時、ベビーカーに体当たりしてしまったり、ベビーカーの中に手をついてしまい赤ちゃんが怪我したら責任はあるのかしら。

  — @mariina55xoxo29 likes

• I raised four children, and getting on and off a train with a stroller is dangerous and the platform frightened me, so I chose to carry them in my arms or on my back. Watching young parents now, I wonder how they aren't scared. And a lot of disabled people out there avoid crowded trains as much as they can and leave home early. That's them thinking about safety.

  私は子供4人育てたけど、ベビーカーで電車を乗り降りするのも危ないし、ホームでも怖いから、自ら進んで抱っこしたりおんぶしてた。今のお若い方見てよく怖くないなぁと思って見てる。そして、世の中の多くの障害者は混雑している電車はなるべく避けるようにしているし 家を早く出るようにしている。 それは安全面を考えてだよ。

  — @もも-p1c9v27 likes

• I'm raising a newborn in Tokyo's 23 wards and I try not to use the train at all, and when I do I avoid the crowded hours. I'm not sure about arguing that we should be able to board a packed train. Thinking about my child's safety, I don't even want to. The one thing that did annoy me: the first time I took the stroller on a train it was completely empty, and an older woman muttered to her companion, "she isn't folding it, is she."

  23区で0歳児育児中ですが、出来るだけ電車は使わないようにしていてます。使うとしても混雑時間帯は避けるようにしてますね。満員電車に乗れるように！って主張はどうなんでしょう、、そもそも子供の安全を考えたら乗りたいなんて思わないなぁ。 ただ、初めてベビーカーで電車に乗った時にガラガラだったにも関わらず高齢女性がこそこそ「たたまないのねぇー」と話していてそれにはムッとしちゃいました。

  — @liilyyyy275 likes

• I live in Tokyo's 23 wards with a one-year-old, and honestly I wouldn't try to get on a packed train in the city with the stroller. It's impossible. If you don't fold it it really is in the way, and folding it and carrying the child is dangerous too. At busy times I move by taxi and treat it as a necessary expense, buying safety.

  23区住みで1歳の親だが流石に都内の満員電車にベビーカーごと乗せようとは思わないですね。無理よ。 畳まないと本当に邪魔だし、畳んで子供を抱っこしても危ないわ。 混雑時は安全を買う必要経費としてタクシー移動にしている。

  — @wt2ayus81 likes

• It's only packed until about nine anyway, and I think the child allowance is there so you can use a different way to get around when you have to travel at an awkward time. If you genuinely want to put your child first you're better off away from the city centre.

  満員なのってせいぜい9時までだし、イレギュラーで移動する必要がある時に別の手段使うための児童手当だと思う、子供を本当に優先する気があるなら都心は離れた方がいいよ

  — @そーなた32 likes

• Of course I want to guide a stroller to the priority space when one comes in, but in the morning rush hour there's nothing we can do either, so if it's at all possible I'd like people to shift the time for the baby's safety. It isn't that I dislike children at all. I'd genuinely rather give the baby priority.

  もちろんベビーカー来たら優先スペースに誘導してあげたいけど、朝の通勤ラッシュでは私たちもどうにもできないんだよね…だから可能であれば赤さんの安全のために時間ずらしてほしいなって思う。子供が嫌いとかはぜんぜん無いです。赤さん優先したいです本当は。

  — @pinky45303 likes

Can you take a stroller on a train in Japan without folding it?

Yes. Japan's transport ministry agreed a single nationwide stroller mark in March 2014, and it marks the lifts and the vehicle spaces on trains and buses where a stroller can be used without being folded. It became a JIS standard in May 2015. The ministry's own ask of users is only to mind the stroller so it doesn't knock into people or block a walkway.

Sources: mlit.go.jp — checked 2026-09-11

So why do Japanese commenters tell you not to?

Because of the peak hour, not the rule. The thread describes the Tokyo morning crush as a place where nobody can move enough to make room: the top answer, at 525 likes, is that people telling other passengers to change cars have never been in a big-city rush hour. Average congestion in the busiest hour across the Tokyo area was 139% in fiscal 2024.

Sources: mlit.go.jp — checked 2026-09-11

When is it actually fine to use a stroller on a Japanese train?

Outside the crush. One rider says he has never once seen passengers fail to clear the dedicated space on a train that is reasonably empty (100 likes), and another puts the bad window at "only until about nine" (32 likes). A parent of a newborn in the thread says she simply avoids the crowded hours, and the one time she was tutted at for not folding, the train was completely empty.

What do Japanese parents do instead at rush hour?

Three substitutes come up repeatedly: shift the trip out of the peak, carry the baby instead of pushing, or pay for a taxi. A Tokyo parent of a one-year-old calls the taxi fare "a necessary expense, buying safety". A mother of four writes that she chose to carry her children in her arms or on her back because boarding with a stroller and standing on the platform frightened her.