It seems that all that’s been on the Japanese news here for the last three days is coverage of the train wreck in Osaka. Now, there are a few articles coming out stating that the Japanese obssession with precision and being on time are at least partially responsible for the accident.

I don’t know how accurate this line of thought it, but it’s interesting. Okinawans are most emphatically not concerned with punctuality, so I don’t get that same impression. And, although I’ve traveled around Tokyo and Osaka bit, I’ve never lived in a major Japanese city and can’t draw on enough experience to agree or disagree that safety concerns fall secondary to timetables.

I will say that the safety record of Japanese rail is outstanding, the personnel are amazingly helpful, and the system overall seemed to me to be very well-designed. I would hesitate to draw some sort of insight into the Japanese people (if such a thing is even possible) based on what appears to me to be the horrible mistake of a 23-year old conductor.

Credit to the Gen Kanai weblog for pointing out some of this coverage.