MULTICULTURAL MINUTE
October 5, 2011

How's your daily commute? Try living in Tokyo...

The rush-hour traffic at some Tokyo subway stations is so heavy that the subway system hires special "pushers," known in Japanese as oshiya, to help "arrange" commuters into the subway cars. Once the cars reach 100% capacity the pushers help extra commuters onto the train by politely but vigorously pushing them into the open doors, forcing those already on the train into an increasingly tight fit. Moving can become quite difficult! The Japanese have an expression for their transit woes: tsukin jigoku, which translates to "commuter hell." The transit problems were at their worst during the 1960s and 70s, but fortunately conditions have improved in recent years, and pushers are usually seen only during peak hours at the most trafficked stations.

See oshiya in action here.

(Source: "Taking a Trip to 'Hell' and Back in Japan's Overfilled Trains." Digitaljournal.com, Apr. 5 2002.http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/34097?tp=1)

If you want to receive the full version or weekly updates of the Multicultural Minute let us know at multiminute@nbdmc.ca.

CURIOUS TOURIST QUIZ

Want to go on a cultural journey without leaving your desk? If you haven't checked it out yet, we have a new multicultural quiz called the Curious Tourist. Watch out: it's definitely a challenge!