We've been watching a TV series called Mighty Trains and the other day the topic was the Shinkansen or Japanese Bullet Train. We've had a few trips to Japan and
one of the things we look forward to is travelling by train. We've noticed how the drivers and guards spend a lot of time pointing and calling out but have assumed it's just some eccentric ritual carried out since time immemorial.
However, it seems that it is an essential part of the Japanese obsession with safety and is designed to minimise the chance of error in carrying out routine tasks. It's called shisa kanka, and tests show that it can reduce mistakes by 85%. It's very noticeable on trains and buses but is used right across industry in Japan, yet has never been encouraged in any other country.
On the Shinkansen program, we saw the driver checking his gauges, pointing in an exaggerated way and calling out OK. The theory is that coordinating eye, arm, finger and voice increases mental focus, meaning that things are right more often than they are wrong ... and it seems to work.
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