They put a high premium on punctuality in Japan.
A politician once had to drop out of an election after he delayed a bullet train by pushing staff to halt it for a campaign stop. This time, though, it’s a rail company that’s apologizing after the 9:44 a.m. train on Tokyo’s Tsukuba Express line left earlier than scheduled on Tuesday 20 seconds too early.
In a statement on its website, management “deeply” apologized for the “severe inconvenience” caused to customers who missed the too-early train and couldn’t afford to wait for the next one – scheduled for four minutes later. The conductor on board didn’t correctly check the train’s timetable, resulting in the early departure.
While issuing the mea culpa, the company noted that it actually hadn’t received any customer complaints.
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