I thought that baseball at high school in Japan was as much about manners and discipline as it was about the sport itself. But obviously, judging by what I saw on the train today, I was wrong.

There were four high school boys, all baseball players. I know that because they were all wearing their school’s baseball caps with their school uniforms. On a busy train just before seven o’clock at night, when the trains are full of people commuting from work, they were taking up not four seats, but six seats. What’s more, they were sitting in the priority seat section.

Now call me heartless, but I strongly feel that if they’re baseball players, they don’t need to be sitting in the priority seats. What’s more, all four of the boys were using smartphones. One of the rules about the priority seat section is that smartphones shouldn’t be used because they can affect pacemakers and other medical devices.

I would suggest that before such boys start playing baseball, they learn a few manners. Surely that should be the priority rather than throwing a few balls around, shouldn’t it?