If you’re going to do something like this, you need a very good, or at least a very crazy, reason for doing it.
Japan’s trains are very punctual, but that doesn’t mean they have a perfect on-time record. Even the prestigious Shinkansen is delayed sometimes, as happened on Tuesday afternoon when service was suspended for a very unusual reason: someone was walking on the tracks.
The incident occurred at approximately 4 o’clock in the afternoon at Shizuoka Station, located in the middle of the heavily used Tokaido Shinkansen line that connects Tokyo with Kyoto and Osaka. The man, a 39-year-old Brazilian national with the linguistically Japanese family name of Yamaguchi, was seen hopping off the Shinkansen platform at Shizuoka Station and making his way to the northeast, walking on the tracks. Around 30 minutes later, he was seen at Higashi Shizuoka Station, the next station over on the non-bullet train Tokaido Line, where he hopped a fence as part of his route to get off of the tracks and back into the station, but was apprehended by a platform employee.
▼ The regular route for walking from Shizuoka Station to Higashi Shizuoka Station is to take the road that parallels the train tracks, not walk on the tracks themselves.
Service was suspended for bullet trains traveling in either direction on the nearby sections of the track for roughly 70 minutes while safety inspections were carried out, affecting 64 trains and approximately 56,000 passengers.
▼ Video showing a Shinkansen train stopped at Higashi Shizuoka Station, which normally isn’t a bullet train stop, while the inspection was going on.
Yamaguchi was promptly arrested, and admitted to the charges, but claims he had a good reason for doing what he did. During questioning, Yamaguchi, a resident of Higashi Hiroshima City in Hiroshima Prefecture, told the police that he was being chased by the yakuza and had hopped onto the tracks to avoid them. So far, though, there haven’t been any reports or witnesses who have publicly corroborated that organized crime operatives had pursued Yamaguchi onto a train platform in Shizuoka, about half-way across Japan from the town he lives in. The police are still investigating the validity of his claim, and while it would be hard to fault someone for taking desperate measures if their life is in imminent danger, this is a good time to take a moment and remember that major train stations in Japan generally have at least one manned police box inside or adjacent to the building, just in case you find yourself in need of sudden protection from the yakuza.
Source: TBS News Dig, FNN Prime Online (1, 2)
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