Tokyo is a very clean city, there are no cigarette butts on the ground, no gum on the sidewalks, and no trash anywhere. Surprisingly they have no trash cans on any street corners, like you find in NY. People just wait till they find a place with a trash can instead of throwing things on the street. Japanese people have respect for their city.
Almost no one in Tokyo smokes. And when they do, they follow the laws and smoke in designated areas. They don't throw cigarettes on the sidewalk or out their car windows. Japanese people don't blow smoke in your face, or walk with a lit cigarette (something that the oblivious and disrespectful europeans truly we saw didn't get.) We were eating on a bench along the sidewalk one day and these four european women came up sat down next to us and just blew their smoke right at us; exactly what I want when I'm eating.) The week I was back in New York, I was on the subway to work and this businessman in a decent looking suit pulled a cigar from his pocket, bit off the end and spit it on the subway car floor. I looked at him with a look of surprise and he responded with a gruff F-You in an abhorrent New York accent. I retorted with a request to him to pick it up and throw it out properly, to which he replied that it was biodegradable. Of course I then needed to remind him that biodegradation only works when your outside and you have a proper place for it to degrade into. He says F-You again, and asks me if I'm from New York, and that since he's from New York he has some (I can only assume) constitutional right to be a disgusting pig and throw sh!t on the ground. I told him he was disgusting and then he just tried to intimidatingly stare me down. Japanese people have respect for their city.
Employees of the Tokyo JR transit, employees of the post office, and every store we visited were very courteous. And it's obvious it's not just cause I'm a foreginer spending money there, you can see how they interact with their own people and even when they are just doing their normal jobs. JR transit employees were nice, neat uniforms with clean white gloves. Could you imagine if an MTA employee wore white gloves, they'd be black in a week if they even wore them. Everyone in every store we visited, even those we just were window shopping in, were very polite and helpful. In NY if you need help from people in a store, they often won't help you, or even know what your talking about or even speak English (granted there are exceptions.) In Tokyo many store clerks know enough English to help you (which is nice since my Japanese isn't the best, but I at least try and they appreciate that.) Japanese people have respect for their city.
It's just plain nice to go someplace and feel that you aren't going to be treated like crap because that person thinks that they deserve more.
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