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With over 20 million people using public transportation daily in the Tokyo metropolitan area, the Japanese government has good reason to worry that the arrival of over 600,000 visitors for the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics will overwhelm the city's already strained system.
To avoid commuting disruptions, the Japanese government launched a "Work from Home" program to encourage a certain number of employees to work from home for at least two weeks starting July 24th. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) hopes that more than 600,000 employees from 3,000 companies will participate in this pilot program.
Tokyo's subway system is notoriously crowded, with an average of 3.64 million passengers passing through Shinjuku Station daily, which holds the Guinness World Record for the world's busiest subway station with over 200 exits. Furthermore, the Tokyo metropolitan area is also the most densely populated urban area on Earth with nearly 38 million people.
In July, Google data showed Tokyo's Chuo Express was one of the busiest trains in the world, and the situation in other parts of the city wasn't much better. On all rail and subway lines, "oshiya" (or "pushers") were constantly on standby to push passengers and their bags into already crowded train cars.
Railway and subway lines always have staff whose job it is to push passengers into their carriages.
Experts have expressed serious concerns about the impact of the Summer Olympics, held from July 24 to August 9, 2020, and the Paralympics that follow (ending on September 6).
Professor Azuma Taguchi of Chuo University, who has spent years researching traffic congestion, warned that trains could operate at up to 200% capacity during peak hours, and that this figure could even double during the Olympic Games, putting the subway system at risk of paralysis.
Tokyo's subway system risks being paralyzed if it has to operate at 300% capacity during the 2020 Summer Olympics.
To date, more than 50,000 Fujitsu employees and over 10,000 NEC workers have agreed to participate in this "Work from Home" program. Ricoh will also close its headquarters to allow 2,000 employees to work from home during the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The "Work from Home" program was first piloted by the Japanese government in 2017 with the participation of 63,000 people, and by 2018 this number had skyrocketed to 300,000 people from 1,682 organizations.
