Is Japan's Culture an Issue?

[whhistle]

I'm watching a documentry I saw on Channel 5 - World's Busiest Train Station.

It's pretty interesting albeit old.
Interesting how trains must be kept to absolute time, and we've all seen the squeezing members of staff! I'm also sure we've all come across the newspaper articles of trains leaving early.

However, the documentry also went into the Amagasaki rail crash where the driver was so concerned about being late, he ran the train over the speed limit and ended up killing hundreds of people.

The documentry went on to say our version of "person hit by a train" is called a "human incident" and that 30,000 people a year (one every 15 mins) kill themselves.

It went on to say the rail companies have considered fining families up to £800,000 for the delays caused. Huh?

So I ask, is the culture of absoluteness and being late just a killer?
I also wonder if the statistics have considered the amount of people that live there.

 

[ComUtoR]

It isn't 'Japanese Culture' that is the problem.

This is a Safety Culture Vs Performance Culture. Shortcuts are taken the more you increase the demand for greater performance. Those shortcuts eventually line up and you get the Swiss cheese effect. The numerous Non Technical Skill courses that ran across the industry certainly highlighted this and various high profile accidents were discussed.

I think the great thing about the UK Rail industry is that we are risk averse and have a high safety culture. There have been a few comments across this forum that highlights that there is an increasing demand for performance and some small safety sacrifices. There have been a couple of comments where some believe potentially there is a major accident just around the corner. With a safety culture is can lead to complacency as your incident rates decrease. Effectively 'resting on our laurels' With a demand for increased performance the human factors increase dramatically. The pressure put on staff can, and has lead to incident. This isn't just seen on the railway.

The most well know comments about safety are 'Nanny state' and 'Health and safety gone mad' both of which are negative and part of the reason why standards get relaxed, people take shortcuts, and there is pressure break the rules.

There are also calls to fine people for causing delays. The worst of which I have heard is to fine those who commit/attempt to/threaten suicide. If you look through the holding doors open thread there are also calls to fine those who do it.

We are all just as guilty, it isn't a 'Japanese Culture' thing.