🎌Culture & Unwritten Rules

Where and When to Take Off Your Shoes

Understand Japan’s “take off your shoes at the entrance” culture and the situations where shoes come off even outside your home.

In Japan, you always take off your shoes when entering a home. This is not just a habit. It reflects the idea that outside dirt should not be brought into indoor living space.

How the entryway works

Japanese apartments have an entry area called a genkan, which is one step lower than the indoor floor. It marks the boundary between “outside” and “inside.”

The lower level by the door is where you stand with shoes on.
The raised floor beyond it is indoor space, and you step up only after taking your shoes off.

It is good manners to place your shoes neatly in the entryway after taking them off. Kicking them off carelessly gives a bad impression.

What people wear indoors

After removing shoes, many people wear slippers. Bare feet are also fine, but slippers help with cold floors and dirt.

When visiting someone else’s home

You must take off your shoes at the entrance. If slippers are offered, accept them and wear them.

As for shoe direction, it looks polite to line them up at the side of the entryway, facing toward the exit.

Toilet slippers

Some homes have a separate pair of slippers just for the toilet. They are meant to be worn only inside the toilet area. Forgetting to switch back when you come out is a classic awkward mistake for newcomers.

Places outside the home where you may remove shoes

You may need to remove shoes at the entrance in places such as:

Restaurants or inns with tatami rooms
Some traditional facilities
Nursery schools or kindergartens when parents step into the indoor area
School classrooms where indoor shoes or slippers are used
Some clinics with slippers placed at the entrance