Gov't urges rail companies to take steps to prevent commuters falling off platforms

Ya think...

Other countries require these things, Japan only urges? Something is wrong here.

I thought that the raised bumps were common place, I'm surprised that they were not there in the first place.

I see the Oedo line are installing them - they were at my local "乗換え" station last night when I went out, and that station is not even really very busy so I was a bit surprised. I guess they can only be a good thing. I wouldnt even mind paying an extra 10 or 20 yn on my ticket to finance it. The subway is so reasonable already.

If a high percent of people that died were blind (like over 60 or 70 percent), then adding braille blocks would make sense. Otherwise, they need a fence. Is putting up a fence so difficult?

How many dozens of long meetings were required before this brilliant and insightful revolutionary idea occurred to them, do you reckon? Hours we paid for, with not the slightest hope of ever realising anything.

gaijinfo

Is putting up a fence so difficult?

A fence is a great idea but not as simple as many make it out to be. There are many issues that prevent it from being the magic bullet solution that prevents accidental deaths and suicides. For one thing, a fence would have to have sections open with motorized gates/doors to provide access points to the trains. These sections would have to match up to the exact spot the doors on the trains will be when the train stops at the stations but as you would know if you ride traings in Japan (especially the interconnected lines in Tokyo), there are multiple train car designs/makes that run on any given line and building such a fence with doors that can accommodate all of the various door positions on the different trains would be very difficult if not impossible. Just take the Hibiya Line for example; no fewer than three different companies' rolling stock all with different designs and door locations operate on that line, the Hibiya, Tobu, and Toyoko lines. I'm all for completing enclosing the station platforms so that passengers have no access to the tracks but people need to recognize that it's much more difficult to install these fences on some of the Tokyo lines (both surface and subway) because of the various types of trains that use the platforms.

Add to that all trains have to be fitted with communication devices that tell the "fence" what type it is and when to open and close the fence and matching doors.

Also the "fence" needs to be installed at night when the trains are not running in addition with the daily maintenance. Plus some platforms will need to be modified to cater for the fence.

Not that easy and quick to do. The yamanote line is being upgraded right now and they estimate another few years before each station has them.

Tokyo has many stations, even more once you get out of the city-centre.

I don't see why they couldn't build a containment area in the center of the platform with automatic doors. It needn't go right up to the edge of the platform and so there would be no problem aligning it with the various models of trains, as USNinJapan2 points out.

It also needn't be very high. One meter should be enough. Sure, people could leap over it, but the purpose is to point out the danger and to prevent drunks from accidentally staggering onto the lines (it has happened). Fines would probably be enough to deter people from doing this.

Its purpose wouldn't be to prevent suicides. These people are very few (considering the huge numbers of people using the transportation systems) and, in any case, if a person really wants to commit suicide, he/she will find a way.

One day, I was going from Kitahiroshima to Sapporo by train.

I entered the station and took the escalator down to the platform. The canned voice warned escalator passengers to stand between the yellow lines, prompting me to see if it would be POSSIBLE to stand OUTSIDE the yellow lines. Believe me, unless you have feet a few millimeters thin, it can't be done. The yellow lines go right to the edge.

The canned voice also warned that of the "great dangers" of the escalator (taihen kiken desu kara ...), so I gripped the handrail as I had been instructed and braved the rest of the ride down to the platform. This was uneventful, but, as I was standing, waiting for my connection to Sapporo, a cargo train, with NO ANNOUNCEMENT whatsoever, suddenly hurtled through the station at at least 120 kph.

Having been in education all my life, I lay the major part of the blame for the above on the Japanese education system, which consists of little else than mountains of material that are totally irrelevant to life and livingness and that have to be memorized word for word in order to pass tests.

Application, judgement, original thought have NO PLACE in this system. And in fact, the Japanese education system destroys any ability to judge, form an opinion or create that children might have had when they started school.

The logistics of it are one thing, but there's also the cost. I believe I read somewhere that the estimated cost just to have fences installed at all of the yamanote line stations alone was billions of USD (not yen, dollars).

"Other countries require these things, Japan only urges? Something is wrong here."

You'd be surprised how many world systems don't have items mentioned there.

That's correct, that's why the article points out "where installing the doors is plausible".

Logistics, equipment etc will cost a ton of money. Any new systems are built with this in mind, however older lines and system would have to be retrofitted. Most of these systems run on a for-profit basis.

Why didn't they require all trains to have identical car designs? They could start now by phasing the older cars and replacing them with standardized cars. That would surely help.

the ministry called for “soft” measures, such as rail companies urging platform employees to be on the lookout to help blind and other disabled passengers.

I think the real problem is - why dont pedistrians and commuters watchout / lookout for diasabled people. Ive helped a alot of handicapped people since Ive been to Japan. Usually people just stare at me and think Im crazy or something.

Once I witnessed a fat man in a wheelchair. He fell down, the train staff and I was the only group that helped this man. His wife couldnt lift him. she was scared. I dont know if this guy was hospitalized but the average citizen in Japan doesn`t care about their own.

Seriously, If I saw or seen a handicapped person usually I watch that person in my line a sight.

Usally I keep an eye for blind people especially when the are walking on a platform.

MAYBE MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME THIS.

IN JAPAN KIDS DON`T KNOW ABOUT ASSISTING PEOPLE OR WHATEVER.

WHEN I WAS AT SCHOOL. OUR TEACHERS CONSTANTLY TOLD US TO CARE FOR PEOPLE, STRANGERS, PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT YOUR FAMILY MEMBER, NOT YOUR FRIENDS AND ETC.

LOOKING OUT FOR PEOPLE IS COMMON SENSE TO ME.

MAYBE JAPAN NEEDS A JUKU TO TEACH COMMON SENSE

WHEN I SEE PEOPLE WALKING ,GOING DOWN OR COMING UP THE STAIRS, BICYCLING ON THE SIDEWALK, USUALLY I STEP ASIDE AND LET THEM PASS. USUALLY THEY LOOK AT ME, ESPECIALLY MOTHERS ANDWOMEN LIKE " That`s right you should get out of the way, a queen is coming through " ATTITUDE.

I think the people in Japan need AC commericals everyday for the rest of their lives.

I agree with you johninnaha, people here need to be re-educated in manners.

Wow. I had no idea fences would be so complicated. Maybe it might be cheaper and easier to hire a couple guys at each station whose only job is to walk up and down and make sure nobody falls over, warning people to stand back, etc, and keep their eyes peeled for drunks and blind people.

Those braille blocks are already very dangerous. I once witnessed a girl wearing high heels stumbling over those elevations and falling right onto the track with her head. The poor girl passed away.

The trend in thinking nowadays seems to be 'please protect us from ourselves'.

@tideofiron

I hope you remember your own words when you slip on a patch of ice (carelessness) on the pavement and are lying there in agony with a broken pelvis. No ambulance for you, my friend; waste of resources :)

As usual, the government is fobbing off responsibility onto the companies to do what needs to be done. I swear the Japanese government does NOTHING except chase after taxes; everything else is someone else's responsibility.

@presto345

The trend in thinking nowadays seems to be 'please protect us from ourselves'.

The government is just trying to help you, so how dare you to speak against them. （笑） Bow to the government!!! ^_^

@smithinjapan

As usual, the government is fobbing off responsibility onto the companies to do what needs to be done. I swear the Japanese government does NOTHING except chase after taxes; everything else is someone else's responsibility.

The above statement is nothing but the sad truth, yet we have these government Apologists trying everything in their power to protect these bureaucrats and blindly believe everything is said to them. so sad indeed.

MAYBE JAPAN NEEDS A JUKU TO TEACH COMMON SENSE

Hear hear.

I always hear how the Japanese aren't helpful. I never understand this. Have been in Japan 5 months and have been helped so often by strangers - well-dressed man in Tokyo station who carried my Mom and aunt's heavy suitcases up stairs - older woman shopkeeper in Nikko who STEPPED OUT of her store to lend two friends and I umbrellas - young woman who got off the train with my sister and I (before her stop) to show us how to get to the next platform - I could go on and on - young man who walked all around a station forever trying to find where I needed to go. I'm not young and gorgeous - I'm a 55 year old pudgy woman who speaks decent Japanese...that's it. I get helped, and helped, and helped. Sometimes I'm helped so much it takes my breath away.

So....I guess we all experience Japan in a different way....