Official
Pass on the left side of the car
It is something everyone knows that cars in Japan are left-handed. When did the left-hand traffic become a common theory in Japan?
Tyunberry, a Swedish medical and botany scholar born in 1743, arrived in Nagasaki in August 1777 when he became a Dutch ship doctor and traveled around the world. I left for Edo on March 4 of that year, stayed for a month, returned to Nagasaki, left Nagasaki in December, and later wrote a travel diary and published it. The road conditions of Japan are described in this travel diary about Japan, so I will introduce it.
"The Japanese belong to the first class ethnic group and are compared to Europeans. We must be amazed at the firmness of national character and the unremitting enthusiasm of the people who seek to pursue and promote the invariability and benefits found in performing their duties. The enforcement of the law does not appeal to power, neither the government nor the dictatorial. There is almost no starvation, and even rare. These are unbelievable, but are true and worth noting. He never praised his strengths in exaggeratedly, or even gave his faults.
Roads in this country are good all year round and have drains. Those who travel up go on the left side, those who go down go on the right side (from the upside). Care is taken not to cause anxiety, disturb, or harm the other. He shows that he follows all senseful ideas and good rules.
Looking at the current road conditions in Japan, the walking direction inside the station yard is also right or left depending on the station. In the case of a scramble intersection in Shibuya, the up and down directions are mixed, and I feel horror and feel horror. Both are fine, so I want you to unify them.
The reason for the left-hand traffic is due to the fact that the samurai has a sword on the left waist, as you know. If a samurai with a sword on the right encountered a relative samurai, the sword would hit and say "rude" all year round. Left traffic can be said to be a reasonable road situation. It has become popular as a matter of course even after hundreds of years. There are no swords right now, but we accept left-hand traffic as a matter of course.
U.K. is also on the left side, why?
What is the origin of the left-hand traffic in England?
In the past, knights inserted the sheath to the left as in Japan to manipulate the sword with their right hand. If you pass face-to-face on the right side, the sheath will collide with each other. Therefore, in the Middle Ages, it is said that in order to avoid contact between the sword sheaths inserted on the left side when passing each other, it was fundamental to pass on the left.
It is also said that the British carriage at that time was on the left side because the man was in the center of the carriage, and the hand (right) used the whip, so the left-hand traffic was easier to handle."
However, when the French Revolution was brought by Napoleon, Napoleon maintained roads, but France, which had a strong sense of opposition, adopted a different right-hand traffic from U.K. The United States, which is independent of U.K., also adopted right-hand traffic to indicate independence. At this time, many countries imitated France, a powerful country, and introduced right-hand traffic, so the world trend is right-hand traffic.
Napoleon Ponapart's survival period is (August 15, 1769-May 5, 1821), so the world may have become normal on the right side from around 1800.
Reference:
1) Edo Sanfu Suigyoki: Tyunberry (translated by Fumi Takahashi) Heibonsha Orient Bunko (1994)
2) Little Tales of British Life： Mac Kinoshita (Web Articles)