One of the differences I notice between parking habits in Japan vs North America is that almost everyone in Japan parks by backing into the parking space rather than going in frontwards. This makes so much more sense since you are generally more careful backing in, and when you are leaving you can see if the path is clear or not. I have read on various BBS about roadster (miata) owners being T-boned by SUVs or other large vehicles suddenly backing out of parking spaces. This seems to be quite a common occurence. The roadster being such a low car is not visible in the rear-view mirror of the SUV.
In Canada, from my fading memory, it seems that at least 50% of people park by going in facing front. I don’t know what the reason for this is since at driving school in Canada I was taught to park by backing in. But my guess is that drivers in North America are probably less patient and hit their horns while someone in front of them takes a lot of time to park. As a result, you get people parking as quickly as possible for fear of being verbally assaulted by the person behind them.
I haven’t seen this in Japan yet, as people generally wait very patiently while a driver ahead of them carefully backs into the parking space and spends time doing the habayose 幅寄せ (adjusting) thang.
For me when I was in HI, I was always less patient getting in the damn stall so I would go front first. The only reason why I started backing in at home was because my car was lowered and I didn’t want smash my front air dam on the parking block. Possibly in other States it’s to prevent people from stealing your stall? But yeah, I noticed that in Japan, for some odd reason I’d back in and make sure I’m perfectly centered etc. Maybe something to do with the smaller stalls here?
Yes, I was thinking the same thing after I wrote this. The width of the stall AND roadway is narrower in Japan so to go in frontwise you would have to make a wider turn to get it in straight, while backing in would be easier. In US the space is wide enough for the car to make the wide turn and get it in in one go. Maybe it’s as simple as that. Just a guess.