Published on April 21, 2019.
Based on a chapter originally published on October 8, 2015, this essay reflects on the background behind a series of incidents that shook international confidence in the safety of Japan’s railways, linking them to the external strategies of China and South Korea.
It focuses on the fact that unusual events, such as the self-immolation incident aboard a Shinkansen and cable fires on JR lines in Tokyo, occurred at the same time that China was intensifying its railway export offensive, and asks whether these were mere coincidences or possibly acts intended to damage Japan’s image of safety.
The author argues that the greatest weakness of China and South Korea lies in doubts about their safety standards, and considers how deviant or near-criminal figures within Japan could, if exploited by foreign actors, be used to stage such incidents, thereby discussing both the vulnerability of Japanese society and the danger of information warfare.

2019-04-21
For example…
the kind of people one would make carry out such acts,
by giving them large sums of money,
or by promising to look after their families for life,
would probably be the kinds of people found in any society…
hotheads,
or people standing just one step short of crime.

The following is from a chapter I published on October 8, 2015.
The other day, after seeing the news that a Giants pitcher had been involved in baseball gambling,
a friend said to me,
“Don’t you think there is something strange about this coming out at this particular timing?”
At first, I thought no more than, perhaps.
But I too came to feel that there was indeed something very unpleasant about it.
For more than three years, Japan had been working on the Shinkansen construction project,
taking into account the wishes of the Indonesian government.
Then, at the last moment, China began an intense sales offensive.
As if in concert with this Chinese move,
incidents connected with Japan’s railways,
of a kind that had never occurred before,
began to happen one after another.
First came the appearance, for the first time since the opening of the Shinkansen,
of a man who brought gasoline into a train car and caused the death of passengers…
he too was a suspicious man.
Next came the appearance of a man on Tokyo’s JR loop line
who repeatedly set fire to cables in a strange manner…
he too was a suspicious man.
The impression these news reports would give abroad is,
needless to say,
that Japan’s railways, long praised as the safest in the world, are not in fact so safe after all.
The two countries that would most want to give the world such an impression would probably be China and South Korea.
It is a well-known fact that they have begun selling railway construction projects to the world.
Their greatest weakness,
deriving from their national character,
would no doubt be concerns about safety.
If you were a clever operative belonging to the intelligence services of China or South Korea,
would you not scheme to create incidents like these?
And if you were to scheme such things,
what kind of Japanese person would you choose?
For example…
the kind of people one would make carry out such acts,
by giving them large sums of money,
or by promising to take care of their families for life,
would probably be the kinds of people found in any society…
hotheads,
or people standing just one step short of crime.