Herald Sun: Japanese commuters feel squeeze
MELBOURNE commuters who reckon they're packed on to trains like sardines have seen nothing yet. If the squeeze keeps getting tighter, look out for the likes of Atsuhide Sakurai. His job with Japan Railways in Tokyo is to ensure the trains run on time. And he can be quite pushy about it. Most weekday rush hours, the 24-year-old platform officer shoves more than 300 commuters into carriages at Shinjuku, the world's busiest train station...Mr Sakurai was happy to demonstrate his technique for packing as many people as possible into a single carriage. "There are some people who hate being pushed or being touched, so I bend my elbow and push with the back of my arm," he says of the method he learned from fellow officers...Pushing "is something that everybody gets used to", he says. "That's the system, and they should expect to be pushed to get on the train...Mr Sakurai says when the signal light on the exterior of a carriage goes off, it indicates the doors are properly closed. "And that gives me a sense of satisfaction," he says...more...
