I love how the idea of Japanese conscientiousness has become almost a meme for how we wish companies were run. Other examples you've probably seen come across the webs: -- Hotel apologizes in advance for a brief 1 minute planned disruption of in-room internet at 4am https://www.google.com/search?q=japanese+hotel+internet+apol... -- Japanese train company issues apology for train leaving 20 seconds early https://www.g…
To be honest, a train leaving early SUCKS. You show up on time, and you find out you missed it. Maybe the next one is in 40 minutes, maybe it's the next day. (I realize 20 seconds early isn't that bad, but still, leaving early by any amount of time is a lot worse than leaving late)
In this case though, next train was arriving in 4 minutes IIRC. But in Japan, being late even for less than 5 mins is not acceptable.