Photo/Illutration People use escalators at JR Urawa Station in Saitama’s Urawa Ward on Oct. 3. (Yuri Nishida)

SAITAMA—Japan’s first ordinance obliging people to stand still on escalators seems to have lost its effectiveness over the year since its enforcement.

According to a study, the percentage of escalator users in Saitama Prefecture who walk up and down the moving stairwells has returned to the level from before October 2021, when the prefectural ordinance took effect.

The ordinance calls on users not to walk or run on escalators. It also obliges escalator administrators, such as train stations and retail shops, to notify the public about the rules.

But there are no penalties for violations.

The prefecture just north of Tokyo adopted the ordinance to promote safety.

Typically at busy spots in Japan, such as train stations in urban areas, escalator users stand on one side, allowing those in a hurry to walk past on the other side.

“Escalator steps are often higher and narrower than normal stairs,” said an official with the Japan Elevator Association, a Tokyo-based industry group of elevator and escalator manufacturers. “You don’t risk wrecking machinery by walking on an escalator, but doing so puts you at risk of injury because you could stumble.”

The association’s figures show 1,550 accidents occurred on escalators across Japan between January 2018 and December 2019.

In 805 of those cases, the cause was “wrong use,” such as a person walking on an escalator instead of standing still.

Professor Katsumi Tokuda and associate professor Tomomi Mizuno, both studying barrier-free environment design at the University of Tsukuba, led the study in Saitama Prefecture.

The research team carried out fixed-point observations of escalators at three locations in the prefecture.

On Sept. 30, the study found that 61.1 percent of the 7,782 individuals who used an ascending escalator to change from the Tobu Line to the JR lines at Omiya Station from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. were walking on it.

On Oct. 1 last year, the percentage of walkers on the escalator was 62 percent.

The ordinance did show signs of success in the early stages.

The ratio of users who walked on the same escalator was 51.9 percent on Nov. 5 last year, one month after the ordinance went into effect.

After three months, the ratio dipped further, to 38.1 percent, on Jan. 14.

Tokuda and his team said the lack of penalties was one reason the percentage later returned to pre-enforcement levels.

The researchers said conventional approaches to raise awareness, such as putting up posters and using public address systems, will likely not lead to lasting effects for the ordinance.

However, Tokuda said the ordinance has been effective in ways not shown by the figures.

The study on Sept. 30 showed eight people who used escalators at the west exit of Omiya Station during a one-hour period stood on the right side, which is the customary “walker” lane in eastern Japan.

They did not budge even when a walker approached from behind.

The study also showed some people initially appeared intent on walking up an escalator, but they hesitated and then rushed up a staircase by the side instead.

Tokuda said both scenes were seldom seen before the ordinance took effect.

“(Saitama Prefecture’s) decision to set the first ordinance of the sort in Japan was indeed significant,” the professor said.

The Saitama prefectural government has admitted it is struggling to get people to keep following the ordinance.

Starting on Sept. 26, the prefectural government replaced the phrase, “Stay put when you are on an escalator,” in its brochure with a call to “stay put on both sides.”

“We hope to exchange views with administrators of escalators on what efforts are available and will be available to raise public awareness,” a prefectural government official said.

The city of Nagoya is also moving to approve a similar ordinance.

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