It’s not at all uncommon to spot people sleeping on commuter trains in Japan. As a matter of fact, it’s probably more unusual to find yourself on a train that doesn’t have at least one passenger who’s dozed off, intentionally taking a nap, or otherwise getting some Zs, especially if it’s later in the day and they might have had a few beers before they got onboard.
So when a JR East train pulled into Odawara Station on the night of May 11 at about 7:35 p.m., the station worker tasked with checking the interior probably wasn’t surprised to see a man sitting motionless in a two-person bench seat even though everyone else had already gotten off the train. The train had finished its last run of the day and was headed into the depot for the night, though, and it couldn’t do that with a passenger still onboard, so the station worker called out to the man, but got no response. Looking closer, he saw that the man was completely motionless, and didn’t even appear to be breathing. Checking for a pulse, he found none, and even his attempt to resuscitate the man using a defibrillator proved unsuccessful, as he was already dead.
The man had apparently passed away while onboard the train. With no one noticing the moment at which he expired, it seems that all other passengers had thought he was sleeping and left him alone. The story gets even more shocking, though, as he had been on the train for nearly 12 hours, traveling back and forth on the line while deceased.
A subsequent investigation determined that the man had boarded the Shonan Shinjuku line train at Shibuya Station in downtown Tokyo at 8:02 that morning. From Shibuya, the train headed north, passing through Saitama Prefecture before reaching its last stop at Utsunomiya Station, in Tochigi Prefecture, about two hours later.
After arriving in Utsunomiya, though, the train switched over to the Ueno Tokyo Line tracks and travelled back south through Tochigi, Saitama, and Tokyo, going all the way to Hiratsuka Station in Kanagawa Prefecture, Tokyo’s prefectural neighbor to the south.
This trip took about three hours, and once it was done, the train went back north along the same route, returning to Utsunomiya around 4:15 in the afternoon. The train still had one more trip to make, this time going all the way back down to Hiratsuka and then further southwest to Odawara, where it completed its run for the day.
In total the man spent 11 hours and 32 minutes on the train, covering 652.7 kilometers and making four trips across downtown Tokyo. With the train’s initial Shibuya-to-Utsunomiya route almost entirely overlapping with the first half of its subsequent Utsunomiya-to-Hiratsuka run, it’s likely that the man passed away, or was at least unconscious or unable to move, before the train reached Utsunomiya for the first time at around 10 in the morning.
The police have ruled out foul play, and the man ostensibly appearing to other passengers to have been sleeping suggests no visible physical injuries either.
With the quick turnaround required for commuter trains in Japan, trains often only get a thorough check when they’re headed into the depot, and otherwise the aim is on getting them back out on the tracks as quickly as possible. If you do spot someone on a train who looks like they’re not just sleeping, but in need of medical assistance, the phrase to tell the conductor or other station staff is “Densha ni ishiki fumei no hito ga iru,” meaning “There’s an unconscious person on the train.”
Source: Asahi Shimbun Digital
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- External Links
- https://soranews24.com/2024/07/03/man-passes-away-on-tokyo-train-no-one-notices-until-nearly-12-hours-and-650-kilometers-later/
- https://soranews24.com/2024/07/03/man-passes-away-on-tokyo-train-no-one-notices-until-nearly-12-hours-and-650-kilometers-later/
34 Comments
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Moonraker
Wonder how many people sat beside him that day.
tigerjane
I came across a man on the train who looked like he passed, and this was during the early morning hours on my way to work and he was swaying from the train movements but did not appear breathing. Everyone was ignoring him on the train, and so, upon getting off the train I immediately went to the gate and informed the station master what I witnessed and went off to work.
tora
Seen plenty of passed out people on the trains over the years and never once thought go try and wake them as I was rushing off.
Not surprised, to be honest. And that last line about how to say there is an unconscious person on the train in Japanese: forgeddaboddit. Not the job of members of the public.
How about having enough staff so they can check the train to make sure everybody is safely off after each run, eh?
Daninthepan
Sounds like a nice way to go to me.
Thunderbird2
When I'm in Japan I use the Yamanote line a lot and you see people seemingly asleep all over the place. It's no surprise that people ignore the poor chap. Do we know how old he was? The article seems to have missed that.
Zaphod
Seems so many people have been sitting next to a corps on that day... spooky.
kuroneko
Densha in?
tora
Densha in = in the densha.
Tell_me_bout_it
電車員？or 電車に？(Densha ni)
Meiyouwenti
It’s a typo. The correct form is: densha ni. 電車に。
Kaowaiinekochanknaw
Does he still have to pay the fare?
Quo Primum
His destination turned out to be the afterlife, so I suppose a fare adjustment had to be paid after he disembarked.
Roger Gusain
My boss may be dead -- it's hard to tell.
Tim Sullivan
Better than jumping in front of a rush-hour train, traumatizing the driver and making everyone late for work. Some people are so selfish.
rcch
Man passes away on Tokyo train; no one notices until nearly 12 hours and 650 kilometers later
… traveling back and forth on the line while deceased.
A subsequent investigation determined that the man had boarded the Shonan Shinjuku line train at Shibuya Station in downtown Tokyo at 8:02 that morning. From Shibuya, the train headed north, passing through Saitama Prefecture before reaching its last stop at Utsunomiya Station, in Tochigi Prefecture, about two hours later.
After arriving in Utsunomiya, though, the train switched over to the Ueno Tokyo Line tracks and travelled back south through Tochigi, Saitama, and Tokyo, going all the way to Hiratsuka Station in Kanagawa Prefecture, Tokyo’s prefectural neighbor to the south.
This trip took about three hours, and once it was done, the train went back north along the same route, returning to Utsunomiya around 4:15 in the afternoon. The train still had one more trip to make, this time going all the way back down to Hiratsuka and then further southwest to Odawara, where it completed its run for the day.
In total the man spent 11 hours and 32 minutes on the train, covering 652.7 kilometers and making four trips across downtown Tokyo.
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Shocking, but not surprising—this isn’t the US or Europe (where strangers start talking to you out of nowhere (I mean, mind your own business!!!)).
sakurasuki
In Japan that also means, mind your own death, kodokushi. It doesn't matter where the place.
kwatt
That dead person really would look like sleeping alive.
factchecker
Shocking, but not surprising—this isn’t the US or Europe
What's wrong with that? Nothing wrong with talking to folks on a long rail journey.
garypen
He probably died peacefully in his sleep. Otherwise, people would have seen him clutching his chest, grimacing, groaning, etc. It's just sad that it wasn't in his own bed. (Or a partner's)
One of the first things I thought of when I read this article was the famous story of Hachiko. I pictured a faithful Akita waiting for him outside the station.
Sven Asai
Well, that's a still possible statistical outlier. Everyone of us dies usually at an unknown time and place. Nothing to do here, some of us will then be found much earlier, others later, some of us will die without causing any shocks, nuisance or JT news, and others will cause just all that too like in the case above.
falseflagsteve
I find this very upsetting and damming Indictment on modern society.
jackandjill
The conductor should be walking through the train at the destination end.
Moonraker
I guess it's good he managed to get a seat.
Seesaw7
That's why I made an effort to wake up sleeping passengers at train terminals.
Shadows of the Rising Sun
Tourists to Japan often confuse (often excessive) politeness with kindness and care for others, but if they stay long enough, the reality will shock them. It did to me.
YankeeX
As populous as Tokyo is, it's a very lonely place
kurisupisu
The cleaning job after removing the corpse would not be particularly pleasant.
リッチ
I thought trains always were checked at the start and stop stations? They always were walking thru them at shinjuku before checking to make sure everyone was off before the next group got on. That was odakyu befoee anyway. 7:40pm is their last train? Explains the overly crowded trains at 23:00 if they are starting to close down by 8. No cctv working on the train to see when he kind of stopped moving. Quite a sad story.
GBR48
We all die somewhere. He just picked somewhere with lots of transience and where lots of people sleep. If you are nearing your end, it's not a bad plan. Better than passing away at home, alone, and not being found until weeks or months later. RIP.
Speed
"Well, I'm traveling man, made a lot of stops, all over the..."♪
thinkbefore
To be fair, it was not the passengers fault getting on and off. A lot of Japanese sleep on the train and they probably thought he was sleeping. Many Japanese often get an inadequate amount of sleep and consequently have the need to sleep during their journey.
smithinjapan
garypen: "One of the first things I thought of when I read this article was the famous story of Hachiko. I pictured a faithful Akita waiting for him outside the station."
Isn't that nice of you to romanticize it. In reality, the man was dead on a train and no one at home seemed the least bit concerned, let alone inquiring at the station after waiting lord knows how long. Seriously... there is no mention that the station or train staff got any calls from family (whom I'm sure, if genuinely concerned, would have checked the man's destination, like a workplace, hospitals, police, and at some point the train company that he usually rides with). None. Maybe they did, but I would suspect that would be mentioned as part the investigation and confirmation of where and when (roughly) he got on the train.