It's sad when you hear an employee has the "I'm not going back to jail" mindset and would rather do something absolutely dangerous than deal with their superior's.

An excellent lesson in why you don't want to punish people in a way that incentives them to hide their mistakes

A tragic incident. You can see that the mindset of the company was "If we have harsh, humiliating punishments for mistakes, then it will prevent our workers from making mistakes." But what actually happened is "When mistakes occur (as they inevitably will), the harsh, humiliating punishments will cause the workers to do anything to hide the mistakes, even if this ends up making the situation much worse."

Mr. Difficult please never apologize for train geeking out I'm sure a lot of us would love to see future train videos

The company did do what actually is in fact bullying to get drivers not to make mistakes. Which actually will make them make more mistakes due to the excessive stress they will be. Cortisol does not increase one's mental capacity, it diminishes it.
Japanese penchant for shaming people into compliance is mostly counter productive, it only serves the purpose of the bosses thinking that they are doing something about the problem.

I remember reading that when these conductors have to go to retraining it's more about them getting screamed and hollered at instead of correcting whatever the problem was that sent them to retraining in the first place.

JR West has owned this accident and made it a part of their company culture.

You can actually see them mention it in detail under their "About Us"...not hidden from view like how some airlines cover up their own accidents...JR West made it a part of their business culture to never repeat it.

It's a shame it happened at all and I'm glad they are candid to admit they were the reason for this and not "pilot/driver error" as what they want to blame.

The Incident/Derailment that put the Spotlight on the Price/Cost of Japan's Punctuality Culture/On-time Policy in the Railway Service Industry...

18:23 In the global context, sure. But for Japan, this accident would be a 8 or 9. They share videos/documentaries/news about it every year

I have worked in Quality Assurance in food manufacturing for almost 20 years now, and with huge machines (mixers, ovens, cutters etc) injuries can be catastrophic. I have worked at 2 places that put numbers and money above safety (did not work at either place long), and ANY time you don’t put safety first, people get hurt, and sometimes worse. I’ve seen fingers cut off, chemical burns etc. and it’s not pretty. And I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone that the a$$holes that put money first are NEVER the people who get hurt. Obviously when OSHA shows up, I don’t ever lie and put the blame where it belongs regardless of the fine or penalty. Sick and tired of hard working people getting hurt to pad the pockets of millionaires.

I can say from working in such shitty work environments that yes, it will cause exponentiating mistakes. The best approach, and the one supported by psychology, is a “blameless” system for those who make mistakes, but were acting in good faith. This allows all parties involved to examine a situation objectively, and not surprisingly, the mistakes become not only less severe, but can also become almost non-existent in such systems. Pressure leads to poor judgement, and such corporate systems that do operate this way should be considered poor industrial hygiene.

The website of the company involved is very eye-opening with how honest it is, along the lines of "We at the JR West company caused the derailment of this train." Look at the last link in the description. So glad this document is in there.

A little note : Osaka is second largest metropolitan area in Japan. It's the third most populated city but the second one, Yokohama, is part of Tokyo metropolitan area.

Trains tend to be scheduled in minutes. In Japan it is said that passengers can plan the train schedule by seconds. Hence the reason why he was so anxious about a 30-60 second delay, not 30-60 minutes.

Also I love the how 15:20 nailed the Japanese equivalent for "Balls".

There were also reports of physical abuse of employees as punishment and this is known to occur at a variety of old-fashioned Japanese companies.

Other countries when you make a mistake: A few harsh words from your boss.
Japan: Writing "I will not XXXXX" lines on a blackboard, weed removal, public shaming, seppuku.

Wow. I’m actually surprised there weren’t more deaths, considering how packed Japanese trains are.

The way that carriage was flattened against that building was wild. That force was beyond brutal.

In my country, Thailand, there's speeding coach drivers, timetable is impossible due to road and traffic condition, so they always speeding and also dozing off while speeding. Take the train or rent a car if you can, you'll be late, 90% of the time, but it is not deadly as coaches.

Being in building restoration, I can't help but to think of how big of a pain in the ass it has to be to do work on the buildings right up against the rail tracks