Walter Hayley comments

Three years is not nearly enough. Multiple it by ten...

The article says the bag was left on the floor, next to the customer. I don't see anything specifying that it was unattended.

As for: "As for getting a seat in a cafe before you've been served - I hate that selfish behaviour."

The system of placing an article on a table to reserve it seems fine to me. If people do so as they enter an establishment, it seems they would be seated in the same order they arrived and were served...

As I recall Narita Airport has poles positioned at the entrances and exits of escalators, that prevent large carts from using them...

"Boys will be boys"???!!! What an as asinine comment! In fact, it is so off-putting it is asinine, ass-a-ten, and ass-a-eleven as well. What if was your sister, or your daughter?

I think the researchers may have missed a very important, if not so obvious, point. It may be that Japanese customers take their business elsewhere after a single bad experience because they have come to expect (and appreciate) proper service, and not the other way around...