There are two types of people who listen to music in public: those who wear headphones and those who … are a word I probably can’t use here. “Loudcasting” – playing audio, watching videos or talking on speakerphone in public spaces – is a form of antisocial behaviour that drives eight in 10 of people in the UK crazy, and I’m glad Andy Burnham is one of those eight. But while I welcome his policy to fine “headphone dodgers”, I’m not convinced it will solve the problem.
This behaviour isn’t only a nuisance, but a grave indicator of a deeper societal issue: the erosion of empathy. You can’t legislate civic pride into an individualistic culture where feelings of social disconnection are widespread.
From 2019 to 2021 I lived in Japan, where keeping the peace is paramount and you can be reprimanded just for talking on the bus. When I returned to England, I felt shock and shame at how we treat one another and our public spaces. I still do. We watch our dogs defecate in the street and walk away. We use public bathrooms as if we’re feral two-year-olds. We inflict the soundtrack of our mindless social-media scrolling on an entire train carriage.
Japanese society is not without its flaws; I often chafed at the level of deference I witnessed. But living there also highlighted to me just how selfish we can be in Britain. Last week, I saw someone had smeared dog poo into the communal carpeted entrance of their own block of flats. Some on the far right love to cast other cultures as primitive, but I think we need to look at ourselves.
We could learn from Japan. As a broadly collectivist society, it favours social harmony and group responsibility. One guiding principle is meiwaku wo kakenai: the idea that you should avoid inconveniencing others.
I worked in Japanese state schools and was astonished when students as young as five diligently began stacking chairs and clearing apparatus as sports day wrapped up. Nobody told them to. Additionally, Japanese schools don’t completely rely on cleaners: the students sweep the halls, wipe down desks, empty bins and even disinfect and scrub the bathrooms. This cleaning practice, a component of tokkatsu (special activities), forms part of a wider approach to holistic education and teaches children personal responsibility for, and pride in, their environment.
It’s important to add that a teenager is still a teenager, no matter the country. It’s a myth that all Japanese children are innately disciplined perfect little angels. But the wider impact of these social ethics is obvious. Crime rates in Japan are (comparatively) low, public spaces are meticulously maintained and litter is a rarity. It’s not a myth that Japanese streets are so clean you could lick them. Lick an English street and, bam! Dysentery.
The UK government’s crackdown on content-blaring can only work in conjunction with a wider effort. First, fines have to actually be imposed by those in authority – and they need to feel safe and incentivised to do so. Train managers have been hot on calling out fare dodgers for years (one made me cry when I was 19 for not having my student railcard, such was his wrath). Now they need to bring the same resolve to headphone dodgers. Burnham’s policy states that drivers would not be expected to enforce such rules – it’s a job for safety officers or the police. But unless someone is there to enforce the rules in the moment, the policy becomes little more than an empty threat.
Second, we need to rebuild social norms so that consideration for others is instinctive. The word etiquette seems antiquated, but given that almost half of us in the UK play content from our phones without headphones – and that this behaviour bothers most of us – etiquette education is still necessary. Maybe, so we don’t feel we’re in a Jane Austen novel, we call it something else. Perhaps in schools, it’s civic responsibility class, or lessons in caring about others, or simply learning how to not be a twat. It doesn’t require major educational reform. Copying Japan’s approach to school-cleaning, for example, could be a good (and easy) place to start.
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The onus, of course, isn’t only on schools – parents have to lead by example. But imagine the ripple effect if British schoolchildren were given the responsibility of caring for their classrooms and corridors.
Unfortunately, there’s also a deeper issue. Some loudcasters are simply oblivious, but others are deliberately rage-baiting. The latter is a product of a disaffected society, which Burnham’s fines by themselves could exacerbate. Nobody likes being told off, but especially not angry people.
We don’t need to become Japan. But in an increasingly divided world, consideration for others and respect for our surroundings are what can still hold us together.
