At Tokyo’s Ebisu train station, the first thing passengers hear upon arrival is the theme music from the 1940s noir film, “The Third Man.”
Every train stop in the city has distinctive jingles, subtly and efficiently letting people know where they are and when to get off.
In Tokyo, every little way you can make things run more smoothly counts, according to Tomohiko Taniguchi, a former rail executive and adviser to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
It includes individual station songs; having train employees literally stuff passengers into train cars during rush hour; and enforcing a unique set of unspoken rules for how passengers should act.
“One of the first things you might have noticed is that people are dead silent in busy trains and crowded trains,” he said. “It is to make [as little] annoyance as possible.”
Despite a population of 37 million, there’s relatively little congestion and pollution here since the majority of its residents rely on public transit rather than cars. But while Tokyo’s mass transportation system may serve as a global success story, it may not be replicable, because its organic growth over the decades has fostered a unique culture of transit.
Taniguchi said that he has been taking the train his whole life. After decades of observing Tokyo’s system, he said, he’s come to the conclusion that in many ways, life in this city revolves around trains.
“On Saturdays and Sundays, teenagers meet at the stations to see their friends, boyfriends and girlfriends,” Taniguchi said. “A cute love affair will pop up around these busy train stations.”
The busiest train station of all, with 3.5 million people passing through every day, is Shinjuku station where Hari — who only provided her first name — met a friend on a recent Tuesday evening.
Hari said that she hasn’t found romance at a train station herself, but she does love Japanese transit. Despite the fact that she can drive, she hasn’t since moving to Tokyo.
“The train is just more convenient,” she said.
Hari’s perspective is nothing out of the ordinary in Tokyo where the majority of people don’t drive but use trains. It is, however, unique globally. More than 50% of commutes around the world are made by car.
Japan’s culture of transit can be traced back to the late 1800s, according to Fumihiro Araki, deputy director of The Railway Museum, which houses dozens of old trolleys, rail cars and bullet trains.
“When Japan moved from a shogun government [with leaders who were emperor-appointed] to a democratic government in the late 19th century, it was decided that railways were absolutely necessary,” he said.
The idea was to keep up with Western countries, many of which were growing — and railways played a big part. But after World War II, the US and European countries began throwing money at highways. Japan, which was rebuilding from the war’s destruction, doubled down on trains.
The country made massive investments in transit, which coincided with a population boom in Tokyo that allowed the train system to grow organically alongside the city. Additionally, they felt it was easier to build railways because of the mountainous terrain, and because the country itself isn’t as spread out as, say, the US.
Today, there are nearly three dozen operators of more than a hundred different train lines spawning the entire city.
“In other countries, a railway is just a railway. It’s just a place to ride on the train,” said Shunzo Miyake, who heads up international affairs at the country’s largest railway company, JR East.
Miyake, who has visited 40 different countries, said that he believes that the difference has to do with how Tokyo rail operators compete for passengers. They even develop real estate around stations to turn them into economic hubs — places where people want to stay after they get off the train.
In fact, busy stations like Shinjuku and Shibuya feel like city centers in and of themselves. People can spend an entire day finding hundreds of restaurants to dine at, places to shop at and bars to drink at, virtually without ever having to leave the station.
“We run a retail business, food and beverage business, shopping centers, hotels, real estate, etc.,” he said.
Miyake said that developing Tokyo’s system, and ingraining transit into the city’s culture, has taken time and money. But for companies like JR East — and the many residents who don’t have to contend with traffic — it’s paid off.