Tokyo Underground

Apart from people killing themselves by hurling their bodies under a train, women being touched up and serious overcrowding, the other train problem in Japan is Kakekomi Josha (駆け込み乗車) which is a word used to describe the action of "trying to get through closing doors as the train departs" (the Japanese language has words for everything! ^^;)

People who look like they are in a rush have that look on their face (the I'm-in-a-rush look) but even for people who don't seem in a rush, when they see their train about to leave the platform, their bodies are automatically drawn towards the closing doors like a magnet.
When they miss getting on, the reaction is *always* the same - a brisk 90 degree turn and continue walking down the platform as if nothing happened.

This is actually quite a problem in society which causes accidents and delays. A person died back in 1995 when doing the Kakekomi Josha - he tried to get on a departing train and got his fingers caught in the door. The driver didn't notice and the train departed dragging the man to his death. Whats worse is that the train was a Shinkansen (bullet train.) His family was given 60,000,000 yen as compensation...

I saw kakekomi now and then back in the UK but was suprised when I first got to Japan to see it everyday.

Above: Video to encourage people to stop doing Kakekomi. Above: Another video encouraging people to stop - this time showing the " brisk 90 degree turn + walk down the platform" move. Above: While I was looking for these vids, I came across a video related to my previous train suicide post - you can see a big sheet being used to hide the body parts away from the public eye.
BTW, there may be problems with you needing to login again after you close your browser - am looking into it.