Wednesday, August 5, 2009

タクシーの日(takushi no hi): Day of Taxi

They say Aug. 5 is day of taxi because the first taxi company in Japan started its business on this day in 1912 in Tokyo. This day was established by Tokyo Taxi Association in 1984 and has been practiced since 1985.
At that time (1912) they used 6 Ford Model T. There were no cruising taxis but they were called by phone. Customers were either foreigners or rich people, therefore drivers' salary was more than that of college graduates because they got tips.
Before taxi appeared, there were kago (駕篭), basket palanquin or jinrikisha (人力車), Rickshaw (two-wheeled cart run by human power) in Japan.
There are still jinrikisha in sightseeing spots in Japan.

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