Japanese taxi company offers silent treatment, drivers won’t talk unless you want to

A Japanese taxi company has solved the problem of talkative cabbies bothering their fares with tales of the famous passengers they have picked up or banalities about the weather, stock market or the government.

Miyako Taxi Co. has simply banned its drivers from speaking to their passengers a service known as “silence taxi”.

As soon as they have acknowledged their destination, Miyako drivers are under strict instructions to utterly silent, unless directly spoken to.

“We started this service on March 21 with five of our taxis and we have had a lot of very positive feedback from customers, both in person and through our web site,” Yoshio Ito, a spokesman for the Kyoto-based company, said.

“There are some customers who really just want peace and quiet as soon as they sit down, and we have found that our ‘Silence taxis’ are particularly popular with young salarymen,” he said.