Originally Posted by Scillybear

I think you are both correct. The seat reservations are technically mandatory (and may even be marked as such) as Jumbodriver points out. But, I must have moved seats on at least 50 odd occassions and I have never ever experienced the conductor bothering. So is a rule a rule if it is never enforced....???

Interestingly - the Japanese railways usually have totally different carriages for reserved seats and non-reserved seats. This works well as far as it is always possible to know where to look for all the free seats...

Some of the trains even have better seating in the reserved parts - but they don't use the advance purchase ticketing as much as the UK.

So maybe that system would not work here.