apanese people often say foreigners are not punctual. I don't like this idea at all. Most Japanese simply don't know how things work in the rest of the world.
Japan is the most punctual nation in the world. If I'm late for class or work, I'll lose trust in people easily. We can't be late. Because we simply don't have many options for excuse!
For example, trains are never late. Even though the train you will take runs every seven minutes, it must have a precise timetable. It never says like "runs every 7 minutes". And of course your train will leave on time. If you want to change trains, the timetable will become your good friend. If your next train will leave two minutes after the first train arrives, you only need to run to the right platform. And you will be able to make it. This happens only in Japan.
You can hear an apology announcement at the station if a train is late by two minutes.
Japanese society is well functioned and on time. Even if there's heavy traffic or an unexpected accident holds up, we are expected to avoid that situation. At the very least we need to call and explain before we make them upset, because we are not supposed to let our cell phone battery die.
This is common sense in Japan. And many Japanese people don't think this is crazy in the world.
From my experiences, people from Germany and Switzerland are very punctual. Now you know what I mean.
I leaned how useless the timetables were while I traveled around Europe. I often couldn't change the train because my first train was delayed. The most surprising thing was, people didn't look upset at all. Especially in Italy, people looked totally calm when I heard all the trains were cancelled because of a strike.
I don't think we should judge anything without learning the other person's culture. Being on time must be quite stressful for the people who come from anti-timetable countries.