Silver seats in Japan

Today is the anniversary of the "silver seat" in Japan. On this day in 1973, for the first time in Japan, priority seats were introduced. They were called 'silver seats' initially. To this day some people still call them 'silver seats', but the official name changed to 'priority seat' in 1997. 

The initiative was launched on Respect for the Aged day as the seats were designed for elderly passengers, as well as disabled passengers. But nowadays they are intended for not just elderly or disabled, but also the injured, the infirm, pregnant women and / or people travelling with infants. 

They were first introduced on the Tokyo Chuo line on September 15th 1973. The Japan National Railways actually made their priority seats silver in color. But not all 'silver seats' were silver in color at the time. The 'silver seats' is believed to have started the association of the color silver with the elderly in Japan.