"Japan is so small: What's the hurry?" This catchphrase, from a road-safety campaign in 1973, was created to help Japanese people slow down. In those days it was common to see drivers racing up to lights, people sprinting through a station to catch a train, or running and dodging down a sidewalk so as not to "miss" a crossing light.
That was the year when the Oil Shock shook Japan up after some Arab nations embargoed oil sales to countries that had expressed support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War.
In consequence, the price of oil rose 70 percent, to $5.11 (!) a barrel, and just as they had in the 1930s, Japanese people again realized how vulnerable their country is, resource-wise. Consumers stormed shops to stock up on toilet paper. Salarymen worked like the devil till all hours of the night. Nobody would give you the time of day, because, simply, nobody had it.