Facts About Japan

Don't Wear Shoes Indoors

It's very rude and disrespectful to wear shoes indoors for these 2 reasons:
· It makes floors dirty
· Japanese homes (tatamis) have a special flooring, normal shoes may damage the straw in the tatami mats

Normally, any places in Japan that don't allow shoes inside will have special slippers. So you can take your shoes off once you enter and replace them with the slippers. If not, you can go shoeless. So if you enter a building and see shoes lined up, you can guess that you may need to take yours off and wear slippers instead.

In tatamis, you shouldn't wear shoes.

When using a public toilet, you use toilet slippers. These will usually be kept at the doorway of the toilet area.