Seeing the Japanese Prime Minister's Motorcade Merge Is Hilarious

We think you can do the same thing by summing up the number of black cars accompanying the state's highest demnitaries. The lower the count, the better the country's score. That means the state official has nothing to fear from the people, and that the drivers are disciplined enough to make way through traffic for the motorcade.

Nobody ever suspected Japan of being uncivilized. They might have a different notion of what that word actually means, but usually, that refers to the fact they take it too seriously. A Japanese will be considered well-mannered everywhere in the world, yet you can't say the same thing about people from other nations coming to Japan.

It's worth remembering that these were the people who committed suicide when they deemed they had tainted their honor, and they did it by spilling their own guts out. Things have changed, but deep down inside there's still a voice there urging them to perform seppuku whenever they do something wrong. Thankfully, peer pressure is a lot less overwhelming these days, so it doesn't happen anymore.

But even civilized nations can have trouble with traffic. Apparently, on the road is where everybody's demons come out and we drop down to a more animalistic state, behaving in ways we wouldn't even dream of outside of a car. Not the Japanese, though.

This video showing the motorcade of the country's Prime Minister, ShinzM Abe, perfectly demonstrates that. It's true that it's more difficult to ignore the courteous signals made by grown men wearing black suits and white gloves hung out the window from their waists, but that alone can't explain it.

The whole merging procedure looks like a very well choreographed move, and while we're sure they guys in black actually rehearsed it quite a few times, it still involved a number of unprepared drivers. But with calm and explicit gestures, it all goes smoothly. And seeing those men - who are undoubtedly part of the Prime Minister's security team, so they're more than capable of breaking both your arms in under three seconds - wave their hands around like a bunch of conductors also provides a bit of comic relief.