PUNCTUALITY WEEK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 September 1938, Page 5

PUNCTUALITY WEEK

POPULARITY IN JAPAN. The American habit of devoting certain days and weeks to specific objects has acquired considerable popularity in Japan. “Punctuality Week” has been the latest occasion of this sort. It started with the more or less legendary anniversary of the first use of a clock in Japan. This was during the reign of the Emperor Tenchi (663-671 A.D.), who is credited himself with inventing a kind of instrument that measured the passing of time by the amount of water which leaked out of a vessel. On this day and, to a smaller extent, during the subsequent week, people are urged to consider the value of time and to keep appointments punctually. Watchmakers offer free service in regulating watches that run too fast or too slow. In the past the Japanese, like most other Oriental peoples, have had little regard for punctuality. A delay of an hour or two in keeping an appointment was regarded as of little moment. Speeches and entertainments seldom began at the appointed hour. Industrial life, however, has helped to change this attitude, especially in the cities. The Japanese railway trains are admirable aids to punctuality; they arrive and depart at the precise moment prescribed by the schedule.—“ Observer.”