Japan Railways

Japan has the world’s busiest rail network, with a daily ridership of 18.5 million. Forty percent of passenger travel in the country is on its railways (compared to the United States, where 90 percent of travel is on roadways). It’s no wonder: Japan’s rail is reliable to a degree that other nations find unfathomable. It is neither unreasonable nor unheard-of for people to set their watches based on the practically guaranteed precision of their train’s arrival. In fact, the system is so confident of its service that passengers have been given refunds if trains are even a minute or two late.

This punctuality is a well-known feature of Japanese travel, however, a lesser-known aspect is the trainspotters—and their corresponding titles. Journalist Anna Fifield described in the Washington Post a few varieties of these experts and their obsessions: she discovered nori-tetsu, people who enjoy riding on trains; yomi-tetsu, who pore over schedules; and oto-tetsu, who make recordings of the sounds of the trains as they go by (for recreation). Some are less intrigued by the trains and more focused on their surroundings and perks of riding, such as eki-tetsu, students of the stations themselves, and ekiben-tetsu, fanatics of the bento lunchboxes sold at said stations.

None of these curious hobbies or obsessions would be possible without those who actually make the trains run: conductors, drivers, and station staff.