blowing nose in public

I know it's frown upon if you blow your nose in public. I have allergies. If I find a place to hide and blow my nose do I still have to keep it quiet so no one can hear me? Or as long as you're out of site you can honk away?

Kim,

I like a good honk too, but outside the privacy of your own home, it does seem to be considered bad manners. The Japanese way just seems to be to sniff interminably.

I always thought that blowing nose in public is bad manners in the U.S. but not in Japan:)

In any case, I think it's more that the person blowing the nose is embarrassed of making such an ugly noise, and not that the people watching is offended. In other words, it's not "cool" to blow your nose with a big buzz :)

On a related note, in Japan you are expected to blow your nose into a piece of tissue paper and not your handkerchief. Your handkerchief is for wiping off water and sweat.

I have been led to believe that blowing nose in public is bad manner in Japan but not so in US or Europe? But if you must, go ahead! :) I mean, if I have to, I turn away from people, and just TRY not to make it sound like I'm blowing my brains out together in the process, but what noise must come out DOES come out.

Personally I (= Japanese) find it far more annoying when people with a bad cold let's say on commuter trains keep on sniffling their nose ALL RIDE LONG so to say instead of blowing their nose... it's more than just several times that I felt like handing out a pocket pack of kleenex to someone really sniffling badly and saying here you go, just go ahead and BLOW IT! *chuckle*

And, yup, I fully agree about the thing with tissue paper vs. handkerchief!!

I was always taught it was rude to blow your nose in front of someone in Japan. And, never to blow one's nose at the table.

If you can go to the bathroom or some other place where there are no people, blow your nose into a tissue.

Being from the US, I grew up being told that sniffling in public here is rude and that one should blow one's nose asap (politely turning away). So, sniffly people in Japan absolutely drove me nuts! I think they are annoying to Japanese people, too, but it's still better than blowing your nose in front of people.

I always thought blowing your nose in public was abit rude especially if it was really loud or you would stuff that snotty rage back in your pocket.But after my recent trip to japan and taking a night bus from Tokyo to Nagoya(5hr) and waking up every 30 minutes to the same guy sniffing.Bring back the snot rage!!!!!

oops thats rag not rage

We were given English assigment that we think about your question and answer it. We are going to show you some of our answers.


1. I also have allergies, so I know they're hard for you. If someone has allergies, he can't pay attention to other people. You don't have to keep it quiet.

2. I think you can honk whenever and wherever. Because it's not good for you to stand to blow your nose. So you don't have to be worried about such a tiny thing.

3. We shouldn't blow your nose in public. It is natural for us not to do. It is a social manner. It's impolite to do in public.

4. If I were you, I would blow my nose in restroom when I want to blow my nose. Because Japanese think keeping silent as virtue.

5. I blow my nose in public. I can't stand not to blow my nose. But I think you should blow your nose softly. Because you'll injure your nose.


These are some of our answers. We hope they'll help you.

Eleanor and anyone who finds our answers, please post any comments. We are English learners and tried to answer the question in English. We are so glad if anyone replies to us. Thanks for reading. We are looking forward to any answers!

Thank you very much for your comments. My daughter is studying Japanese, so I have some inkling of how difficult it is to move between the two very different sentence structures. Your message contains a number of minor errors that an English teacher would want to see corrected. Nevertheless, your communication is very clear and helpful. One word that appears in answer number two is confusing. Perhaps the word “stand” should instead be one like “delay”? Altogether I gather that with respect to nose-blowing, discretion but not martyrdom is advisable.

I think this is also an excellent assignment on the part of your teacher!

lol i didn`t know blowing your nose was such a big deal!

I blow my nose everywhere unless I have a meal or attend some important meetings. But, I have never blown my nose with a handkerchief which is supposed to wipe the sweats on my face or a drop of tear on a face of my girlfriend as well. Simply, I have never imagined the handkerchief can be used in such a particular way. And, something still stopped me to do so. I guess it is not a matter of manners. I wonder if it is hygienic. I just want to blow my nose with different materials like tissues or chiri-gami which can be thrown away later to the trash cans. I do not want to bring such handkerchief all the way to my home.

Hi Stars: you all did great! Thanks for all those comments about my question. It's good to hear all different opinions. Keep up the good work with studying English:)

Hi! I'm one of stars. I haven't read here for a long time. I was very surprised everyone discussed our comment

In Japan, it is considered socially unacceptable to ut if blow your nose in public. In the U.S, it is usually ok. But if you have to, just politely excuse yourself to a bathroom.

And if there is no bathroom nearby, then just blow your nose quietly. I have some allergies and have been doing this for years without seeing anybody look horrified, and I have seen many Japanese do it as well.

Don't worry about it too much, I think most Japanese these days would rather someone quietly blew their nose than sit there sniffing constantly.

Another old thread dug up by someone..

BTW blowing your nose in public is also considered pretty nasty in the USA too.

In Japan it is also rude, but if you got to do it and not controllable no one is going to walk up to you and write you a ticket.

John, I'm not so sure blowing your nose in public is considered so nasty in the USA. It does depend where though. I think it's more of an issue of whether it's sanitary or not. Walking down the street, or waiting for a bus? At your desk at work, or when you are in class? I don't see that this would be viewed as unacceptable.

This issue bothers me. Since I've been living here, admittedly, only a few months, I've run into a lot of 'this is how the Japanese do things so you have to do it like this' regardless of whether it's completely nonsense.

So, it's culturally acceptable for Japanese men to urinate in public on the side of a building, even if a teenage high school girl is walking by, but you can't blow your nose in public? (Which I witnessed first hand, no joke! I almost stepped in it!) Come on, give me a break.

I'm all for respecting the culture, and there's lots of little quirks you learn about when you starting living here in Japan, but this nose blowing thing is out of hand. In my office, I blow my nose at my desk.

I wouldn't blow my nose at the table during a meal, regardless of the country; I can totally understand that. And like everyone else in Tokyo, I carry a small cloth, so if I am on a crowded train, I've coughed into the cloth rather than out in the open.

There's a student in my office who had a cold last month, and he just sniffed every few seconds or so. It was really annoying.

Also, when I flew from Tokyo to Paris (almost 12 hours), I sat across the aisle from a Japanese guy (early 20s) who sniffed constantly. To the point when, where I glared at him in annoyance, he actually stopped sniffing and let the fluid just leak out of his nose, then put his finger in his nose to stop it from leaking. I just don't see how this is more culturally acceptable.

There's a line between respect of the culture and being practical and sensible.

John, I'm not so sure blowing your nose in public is considered so nasty in the USA. It does depend where though. I think it's more of an issue of whether it's sanitary or not. Walking down the street, or waiting for a bus? At your desk at work, or when you are in class? I don't see that this would be viewed as unacceptable.

I never said it was unacceptable, I just said it was nasty. But it depends on the circumstances. If someone did it in front of you vs you sitting at your desk away from other employees.

I also said that about Japan, if you got to do it you got to do it, no one in Japan is going to go up to you and scold you for it. Many Japanese themselves suffer from allergies.

People often say Public displays of affection are acceptable in the USA but not so in Japan.
I say, Again depends, if two people started making out in front of you I bet you'd feel uncomfortable too, but if they did it out in a dark area of the park somewhere I couldn't care less. Same in Japan.

I see 5 more pages of debate coming now because someone dug up a 3 year old thread.

I must be living in a different world. *All* my Japanese co-workers blow their noses with no hesitance whatsoever. And this is in Tokyo. Maybe it's because it's in the office. Or maybe it's not that big of a deal anymore.

Tbh I always assumed it was quite rude to do so, but considering I had flu for the whole two weeks I was in Tokyo there were times when I had no choice but to blow....

The people handing out free tissues were life savers though as I kept running out :P