Saturday, August 28, 2010

It does happen in Japan - 13....

The rampancy of ‘Woman/Girl driving’ in Japan....

If you are still with the notion that ‘girl/woman driving’ in Japan should be as freakish as it is in other developing countries and as you would have watched in a countless number of funny videos, then your thought is ill-conceived. ‘Woman/Girl driving’ in Japan is as flawless and cool as ‘man driving’. Infact, in a broader view, there is no bifurcation in driving as man-driving and woman-driving. If he/she is 18 or more, and you would like to ask them a driving-favour, you don’t actually need to ask this usual first question, “Do you drive?” before requesting a favour. It is by default that he/she drives for sure. Such is the condition here.

Even, given the fact that ‘woman/girl-driving’ (I mean the proper one, not the funny one) in places like India is on a drastic rise over the years, why isn’t it rampant as it is in Japan? There could be a number of reasons to it. The girls are never to be blamed. But l, somehow feel, that some 2 reasons out of that lot, would definitely deserve a mention and shall serve as the top 2 reasons for the above conundrum. They are traffic conditions and car penetration factor.

Being a small country with a sparse population (a lot of them come under car-population though) compared to India, Japan definitely has an upper hand as far as traffic conditions are concerned. Even the so-called busy roads of Japan (say Shinjuku, in Tokyo) don’t look so busy compared to the 6 pm roads of Powai (Bombay) or 7 pm roads of Adyar or Mount Road (Chennai) ; Traffic signals omnipresent (even for a 3 meter pedestrian crossing, where pedestrians hardly cross ; Traffic signal lights always anew & intense, never seem to fade at all); traffic rules adherence highly religious; no rash driving ; no cycles, dogs, donkeys crossing roads intentionally or unintentionally; no rain-water stagnation !! (Gurgaon, I “love” you for this!!) ; drunken driving almost zero ; less or almost zero horn sounds; lot of vehicles with Automatic transmission. Now, from this, is it not lucid enough to decode that this is dead-pitch where even Holland can score 400 in 35 overs? Yes, this is the prime reason. Everything is spoon-fed. Things are highly comfortable for driving in Japan. The stage is well-set. Come on! There is a good friend of mine back in India. She can race through the busy, bumpy roads of Gurgaon in her M800, with utmost ease. Never blame Indian girls/women. They are highly capable. Kindly, provide them the right platform. I can bet on one thing for sure. Minimum 80% of the expert girl car maneuverers in Japan, when asked to drive in Indian conditions, would refuse to do for they are highly precautionary and are sure to get bewildered to see the Indian roads. Leave alone the girls/women, even Japanese male citizens would be having tough times driving in India.

The next main factor is the car penetration factor or the car-penetration ratio. It is 395 cars per 1000 people compared to 7/1000 in India. Isn’t this a massive difference? This girl-driving rampancy has more to do with opportunity than capability. Females in Japan have the opportunity. They have cars, decent roads and at times ATs (Automatic Transmission) too. Now, all that is left is to drive. Capability doesn’t have a greater say. Indian girls/women, despite being capable and flexible, lack only 2 things. Cars & good roads. They aren’t asking for good roads either. All they are asking for, is a CAR.

It is, kind of, strange here in Japan. People own more cars than laptops. People here take a long-time in deciding whether to get a laptop. They go on long, relaxed drives to clear this aura of ’laptop buying confusion’. Oh! Come on! Do not joke. If you can afford a 800,000 Yen vehicle in no time. Why, on earth, are you taking hell lots of your time for this laptop decision. Strange! The affordability of a car is high too, in Japan. The usual question in India, used to be “Do you have a car in your house?” which in Japan becomes “How many cars are there in your house?” for which the reply boldly comes “4. One with me (Suzuki), one with my wife (Honda), two with my sons (Nissan and Mazda).” That’s unity, for you. What a family!! Huh !! While in India, we shall be busy deciding what to wear for tonight’s family dinner at a restaurant, families in Japan shall be having family feuds in choosing on which vehicle to go, for the night’s family dinner and ultimately deciding to go on their respective ones!! Huh! So, given this high car penetration ratio and an easy affordability of cars, ‘girl/woman-driving’ comes as a no surprise.

But, still talking, only about Japan, tout ensemble, a huge lot of women/girls above 18, are capable of giving you a good smooth relaxed cruise along Japan roads without bumps, brakes & frequent screeching haults. There is no need, whatsoever, for you to be nervous on safety of woman/girl-driving in Japan. Just get into the front-seat and get the conversation going, smooth and fine…..