The reel above, published 29 September 2026, stops on the platform call tourists treat as background noise. 黄色い線までお下がりください (kiiroi sen made osagari kudasai) means "Please step back to the yellow line." Your feet, your backpack, and a selfie stick all have to be on the platform side of that line before the train is in front of you.
What does 黄色い線までお下がりください mean at a Japanese station?
黄色い線までお下がりください (kiiroi sen made osagari kudasai) means "Please step back to the yellow line." 黄色い (kiiroi) is yellow. 線 (sen) is a line. まで (made) means up to, or as far as. お下がりください (osagari kudasai) means please step back. The verb is 下がる (sagaru), to move back. The polite request puts お in front of the stem 下がり and ends with ください. Hear the line in five pieces: kiiroi, sen, made, osagari, kudasai. A fuller wording is 黄色い線の内側までお下がりください (kiiroi sen no uchigawa made osagari kudasai). 内側 (uchigawa) is the inside, the platform side, away from the tracks. A 3 May 2022 Tetsudo.com column quotes another common shape, 黄色い線の内側へお下がりください (kiiroi sen no uchigawa e osagari kudasai). You write へ and you say e, and it means toward. All three lines ask for the same move. Stand on the platform side of the yellow strip.
What do you do when you hear 黄色い線までお下がりください?
Step back so your whole body is on the platform side of the yellow strip, before the train is in front of you. A backpack, a stroller, and a selfie stick count. If any of it hangs past 黄色い線, pull it in. The doors open at that edge. The call usually follows a warning that the train is close. One shape you will hear is まもなく電車が参ります。危険ですから、黄色い線までお下がりください。 (mamonaku densha ga mairimasu. Kiken desu kara, kiiroi sen made osagari kudasai). まもなく (mamonaku) means soon. 参ります (mairimasu) is the formal word for comes. 危険ですから (kiken desu kara) means because it is dangerous. Each railway writes the words around the line a little differently. The step back stays the same. You are on the safe side when nothing you are wearing or holding crosses the strip.
How is 黄色い線までお下がりください different from お下がりください?
お下がりください (osagari kudasai) means only "please step back." It does not name a line. On the shorter reel, the platform steps back together because a train is about to pass through and will not stop. That train is marked 通過 (tsūka). The speaker may say この電車は通過します (kono densha wa tsūka shimasu), "this train will pass through." You write は and you say wa. The 通過 reel is those two kanji. 黄色い線までお下がりください names the line. It plays when a train is coming into your platform, including the train that will stop and open its doors. A later chime, ドアが閉まります (doa ga shimarimasu), means those doors are about to shut. That is the door-chime reel. Running for the doors is 駆け込み (kakekomi). The don't-run reel covers that call. This page is the yellow line.
How is the platform yellow line different from the escalator line?
The platform strip marks the edge a train will pass. The escalator stripe is painted on the step. The phrase there is 黄色い線の内側に (kiiroi sen no uchigawa ni), "to the inside of the yellow line," and it keeps shoes and sandal straps on the step. The escalator guide covers which side to stand on, and that stripe. Each escalator step carries its own stripe. The platform has one strip running along the edge. On a platform, お下がりください is a step back from the tracks. The safe place is the platform side of the yellow strip.
Where do you stand relative to the yellow blocks?
The yellow strip at the platform edge is usually 点字ブロック (tenji burokku), tactile paving. Dots mark a danger, such as the edge. Bars point along a path. The bumpy-strip reel shows both shapes. Newer platform blocks add one bar, called 内方線 (naihōsen). Saitama Prefecture's page on these blocks, checked 2 October 2026, says the side with that bar is the safe inner side of the platform. The same page asks you to leave the blocks clear: do not stand on them, and do not set a bag, a bicycle, or a sign on them. A white line, when the station still has one, sits between the blocks and the train. Stand on the platform side of the yellow blocks, on the bar side, and leave the bumps clear for a cane.
Why do some stations still say 白線?
白線 (hakusen) means the white line. Platforms used to have that painted line and no yellow blocks. A 3 May 2022 Tetsudo.com column says people born before the 1990s still remember 白線の内側へお下がりください (hakusen no uchigawa e osagari kudasai). From the 1990s, stations added the yellow blocks about 80 cm to 1 m from the edge, close to where the white line sat. Passengers started using the blocks as the line to step back to. The same column says JR East was already saying 黄色い線の内側へ by the mid-1990s. The Mainichi, on 15 May 2019, heard Nishitetsu's Kasugabaru Station still say 危険ですから、白い線の内側までお下がりください。 (kiken desu kara, shiroi sen no uchigawa made osagari kudasai). 白い (shiroi) is white, the same color as 白線. The step is the same. Get on the platform side of the line.
Why do some stations say 点字ブロック instead of 黄色い線?
A color word does not help a passenger who cannot see the color. At JR Takasaki, the Asahi Shimbun on 11 May 2023 reported that staff on the conventional-line platforms had dropped 黄色い線までお下がりください and switched to 黄色い点字ブロックまでお下がりください (kiiroi tenji burokku made osagari kudasai). A visually impaired employee had asked for the change, and the new line was in use from November 2022. The 3 May 2022 Tetsudo.com column notes that some announcements already say 点字ブロック, 点字タイル (tenji tairu), or 点状ブロック (tenjō burokku) in place of 黄色い線. When you hear any of those, step back to the yellow blocks. Where platform doors are installed, you may hear ホームドアから離れてお待ちください (hōmu doa kara hanarete omachi kudasai), "please wait away from the platform doors." Wait clear of the doors.
What do you say if a staff member tells you to step back?
You do not answer the loudspeaker. You move. If a staff member says 黄色い線までお下がりください to you, step back and add すみません (sumimasen). To a friend who is over the strip, say 黄色い線まで下がって (kiiroi sen made sagatte), "step back to the yellow line." 下がって (sagatte) is the short request you use with a friend. The ください is left off. お下がりください is the form the station uses with a crowd. Hear that word on the sumimasen reel. Where the announcement names the platform doors instead, wait clear of them. Your toes, your bag, and your selfie stick stay on the platform side of the edge.
The speaker is talking to you. 黄色い線までお下がりください means step back to the yellow line, on the platform side, before the train is in front of you. A bag or a selfie stick over the line is still over the line. 白線 and 点字ブロック name the same step back.
