Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism has changed the way it measures crowding on trains, abandoning decades-old newspaper- and magazine-based metrics.

The Ministry publishes regular reports detailing congestion rates in major metropolitan areas. Those documents have previously used the charming illustration below to depict different levels of crowding:

Machine translation of the categories in the above illustration yield the following explanations:

• 100 percent The train is at capacity (you can sit in a seat, hold on to a strap, or hold on to a pillar near the door);
• 150 percent You can easily open and read a newspaper;
• 180 percent If you make an effort to fold it, you can read a newspaper;
• 200 percent There is a lot of pressure from physical contact, but you can still read a weekly magazine;
• 250 percent Every time the train shook, my body tilted and I couldn't move, not even my hands.

Last Friday, the Ministry published its latest congestion report [PDF] and ditched both the graphic and newspaper/magazine metric, which Japanese media report have been used since at least 2001.

The changes to congestion ratings are explained as necessary to make them more up-to-date, and to reflect the opinions of "experts and others."

The Register suspects one reason for the change is that nobody reads physical newspapers or magazines any more, making ratings based on printed publications archaic.

The new ratings are:

• 100 percent You can either sit in your seat, hold onto the strap in front of your seat, or hold onto the pillar near the door;
• 150 percent Shoulders do not touch. There will be more people near the door;
• 180 percent Shoulders touch and there is a slight sense of pressure. The person near the door feels cramped and has difficulty turning around;
• 200 percent Bodies are touching and there is a great sense of pressure. People near the door are unable to move.

The Register's famous Standards Converter offers excellent ways to measure area, force, length, temperature, volume, weight, velocity, and money.

This news from Japan suggests we should also contemplate a metric for train crowding.

If so, how do you suggest we measure it? We can imagine odor, discernibility of music leaking from adjacent earbuds, and likelihood of being whacked by inconsiderate students' backpacks as starting points. Have at it in the comments, dear reader. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/08/06/japan_train_crowding_measurement/