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Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

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Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#111

Post by pm24601 »

baddox wrote: post #85
droithomme wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully with your great compassion for others you will be donating most of your income to stop this malnutrition and suffering in the third world that would otherwise be stopping this girl from getting to school.

And similarly, hopefully anyone applauding this train situation would gladly pay to keep it running themselves, instead of reveling in the incredible human capacity for being generous with other people's money.

You just said more about yourself than you probably intended.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#112

Post by keithpeter »

sandworm101 wrote: post #7

Only girl in the village? They are going to close the line when she graduates. Therefore we can surmise there aren't any other younger girls. So much for having a social life. There are parts of Japan where children just aren't around anymore. Towns are becoming extended retirement homes. That's the truly depressing side of this story. At least this is happening today, when the few remaining kids in such situations c…

In Alexander's A Pattern Language pattern 68 contains a brave attempt to estimate the minimum community size for children age 0 to 5 to be able to make friends face2face. He makes the critical number around 64 households that need access to a green space and suggests a linear layout of houses along a green corridor. When I was a kid we just used the road (less cars then, over half a century ago in the North in the UK).

Pattern 84 looks at the transition from child to teenager in a qualitative way and suggests that teenagers '...should be encouraged to form a miniature society, in which they are as differentiated, and as responsible mutually, as the adults in the full scale society'. He sees the teenagers ranging more widely across a town or city.

I'm wondering to what extent distributed network tech can support that for sparse populations...

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#114

Post by dermotbrennan »

Animats wrote: post #59

Japan keeps the entire island of Hokkaido running for too few people.[1] The population is dropping rapidly. Most infrastructure is funded nationally, and the rest of the country pays for Hokkaido. Partly because it's only about 12 miles from Russia at the closest point, and Japan doesn't want Russia moving in. [1] http://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a03802/

I'm Irish and out of interest I looked up the area of Hokkaido to see how it compares to the island of Ireland and they're actually pretty close - Hokkaido is 83,453KM2 with a population of 5.5M versus Ireland 84,421KM2 with 6.3M. So it is funny to me when you say "Japan keeps the entire island of Hokkaido running for too few people".

Of course, Irelands population is growing while Hokkaido's is dropping...

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#115

Post by jzwinck »

Animats wrote: post #59

Japan keeps the entire island of Hokkaido running for too few people.[1] The population is dropping rapidly. Most infrastructure is funded nationally, and the rest of the country pays for Hokkaido. Partly because it's only about 12 miles from Russia at the closest point, and Japan doesn't want Russia moving in. [1] http://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a03802/

The rest of Japan also really, really loves Hokkaido. From dairy products to lavender to summer vacation to alpine skiing. Maybe not that many people call Hokkaido home, but tons of Japanese call it paradise.

As for me, I called it the hardest of four islands on which to find a vacant hotel room.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#116

Post by jamespo »

greggman wrote: post #56
hkmurakami wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, they (the headline) say "Japan", but this only happened because it's way out in the countryside where people have a "village mentality" of helping each other out (but the trade off is that everyone sticks their nose in your business). Japan railways itself split into several separate companies upon privatization. This would never happen in Tokyo. As much as we think of the country as being monolithic (i…

You have a vastly different experience and interpretation than me. First off people will stop during rush hour in Tokyo to help people. Happens all the time. Tokyo is not cold. I've never seen anyone have trouble getting someone to take their picture, ever. I'm not denying your experience but I'm going to claim it's not common. Second, while it's sad people feel the need to take their own lives it is arguably the hei…

Strollers are a PITA on public transport but what's the alternative? This post seems to be lacking empathy.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#117

Post by Gibbon1 »

canthonytucci wrote: post #69
hkmurakami wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a really good analogy. No one's manning the station and the structure already exists so the marginal cost is pretty low.

Monetary cost, sure. What about the cost on the environment to slow the train down and bring it back up to speed?

I'm guessing very small train, probably 30ton weight. Max speed 33m/s. So accelerating 30,000 kg to 33m/s... what

E = 1/2 * 30000 * 33^2 = 16335000J or 4.5kwhr at $0.20 kwhr that's about $0.90 in electricity costs.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#118

Post by Joeri »

rangibaby wrote: post #95
hkmurakami wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, they (the headline) say "Japan", but this only happened because it's way out in the countryside where people have a "village mentality" of helping each other out (but the trade off is that everyone sticks their nose in your business). Japan railways itself split into several separate companies upon privatization. This would never happen in Tokyo. As much as we think of the country as being monolithic (i…

> Tokyo is a place where a train being 2 minutes late causes ire (and a train conductor once killed himself for a mistake as trivial as this). The driver going too fast from being late was the cause of a (100+ fatalities) train accident about 10 years ago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amagasaki_rail_crash > It's a place where if a person jumps into the train to kill themselves, many will curse under their breaths…

> The rail operator will also send a large bill to the jumpers family.

Isn't this the case in most countries? I suspect they do it to discourage other jumpers, since if you jump you know you're saddling your family with a debt.

As a society we could avoid these things if we provided a legal path to requesting to be euthanised, a legal self-determination on the end of your own life. In my country you can request it, but you must be medically found by multiple doctors to be under unbearable and untreatable pain. If we made such a mechanism more inclusive, we could get rid of jumpers, as well as having an opportunity to turn the ship around for people considering suicide.

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#119

Post by andrelaszlo »

sandworm101 wrote: post #7

Only girl in the village? They are going to close the line when she graduates. Therefore we can surmise there aren't any other younger girls. So much for having a social life. There are parts of Japan where children just aren't around anymore. Towns are becoming extended retirement homes. That's the truly depressing side of this story. At least this is happening today, when the few remaining kids in such situations c…

This reminds me of Nagoro, the remote Japanese village where the dwindling population is gradually being replaced by scarecrows. :)

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/2/5674448/nagoro-japanese-dol...

In Google Streetview: https://goo.gl/maps/ST3HuCEi1YS2

Re: Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger

#120

Post by 7952 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #72
hkmurakami wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely (and unfortunately) agree. This population pattern manifests in so many countries. The United States would be in this situation if not for our immigration inflow. South Korea actually has an even lower birthrate than Japan. China has a smaller population base in its youth vs its middle aged segment as a result of their one child policy [1]. I wonder... will all developed nations engage in a war for produ…

Count Europe out of it for now. If I'm to believe the things I see and read all the time, most of the EU population is rapidly turning against immigration. It's a huge issue on the continent now, and it causes tensions between people and local governments - the latter are being painted as giving out free aid to immigrants while not being able to care for their own people. Population pyramid is a distant concern, when…

It seems to me that the labour market issues we face would exist regardless of how many immigrants are let in. In the long term jobs are at risk from automation. We have fewer middle income people who can afford or are willing to pay high income tax rates.
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