One Passenger Pusher Isn't Enough For Tokyo Area Train That Needs A Three Man Team (video)

日本人、そんなに急いでどこへ行くのですか… pic.twitter.com/mwJ0N8FBal

— 日本の闇を見てしまった。。。【厳選】 (@jpn_darkside) December 3, 2017

There’s no better example of how incredibly crowded rush-hour trains in Tokyo are than the existence of oshiya (literally “pushers”), rail operator employees whose job it is push passengers into the train carriages to compact empty interior space in hopes of letting as many people get on the train before it departs.

Granted, the whole thing is done with the customary sprinkling of Japanese politeness, with the pushers speaking with respectful vocabulary and wearing spotless white gloves. But still, the sight of someone, in a professional capacity, pushing a mass of humanity into a train is a pretty surreal sight…and it gets even more startling when you multiply it by three.