■Nathan Shiga: November 14
It can happen to anybody any day in your routine promises with your friends – a minute or two or a quarter of an hour too early or too late. You wouldn’t fuss over a quarter of an hour delay of your pal making to a meeting with you, would you?

Well, here’s an intriguing incident of a train driver/conductor team almost incriminated for having driven the train off 20 seconds too soon. Alas, some passengers missed the train and the railway authorities found the driver/conductor guilty of misconduct and swiftly had an apology-ad put up in its HP.

It happened at Minami Nagareyama Station on November 14, the trains pulling in and out as usual and the passengers getting on and off like any other day. The take-off tune would sound to signal each train to take off – just as usual.

Then, a train happened to take off unsignaled, leaving a few passengers behind on the platform. It happened so as-a-matter-of-factly that the passengers hardly had time to grumble; nobody complained except the stationmaster.

A report was made swiftly to the effect that a driver/conductor team “had taken off 20 seconds prior to the signal and should be held accountable for a charge of misconduct due to negligence”. The company quickly reacted with an urgent message of apology the very day in its HP offering “the deepest regrets for having caused a grave social disturbance”.

Amusingly enough, the incident brought home a wave of cheers in the foreign press the following day. BBC remarked “such wouldn’t happen in the UK”, praising Japan’s most trustworthy railways.

The New York Times commented the incident “most eloquently spoke for Japan’s high sense of precision”, adding, however, it “is another evidence of Japan’s everlasting culture of apology”.

—Sponsered Link—