Tokyo Confidential
A weekly look at the lesser-seen side of the trains, history and culture of the world's most interesting city
Tokyo Confidential
Why Japan's rail workers can't stop pointing at things
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Allan
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Season 1
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Episode 1
Take a train in any Japanese city and it is impossible to miss: rail employees in crisp uniforms pointing smartly at an array of buttons, knobs and dials.
It is "shisa kanko" - pointing-and-calling - an industrial safety technique that, despite its odd appearance, is known to reduce workplace errors by up to 85%.
Join us as we investigate this fascinating practice and speak with industrial safety experts in Japan on the effectiveness of pointing-and-calling.
This episode is based on an earlier article that originally appeared in Atlas Obscura.