More than 20 million people use public transport in the Tokyo metropolitan area every day, so the Japanese government has good reason to worry that the arrival of more than 600,000 visitors to the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics will overload the city's already strained system.
In order to avoid chaos in commuting, the Japanese government has launched a "Work from Home" program to encourage a certain number of employees to work from home for at least two weeks from July 24. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) hopes that more than 600,000 employees from 3,000 companies will participate in this trial program.
Toyko's subway system is notoriously crowded, with an average of 3.64 million passengers passing through Shinjuku Station every day, which is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's busiest train station with over 200 exits. The Tokyo metropolitan area is also the most populous metropolitan area on Earth, with nearly 38 million people.
In July, Google data showed that Tokyo's Chuo Express line was one of the world's busiest, and the situation in other parts of the city is not much better. Across all rail and subway lines, "oshiya" (or "pushers") are on duty to push passengers and their bags into packed train cars.
Railway and subway lines always have staff responsible for pushing passengers into the cars.
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 the problem of traffic congestion, warned that trains could be operating at up to 200% capacity during peak times and that number could even increase by 1.5 times during the Olympics, putting the subway system at risk of paralysis.
Tokyo's subway system is at risk of being paralyzed if it has to operate at 300% capacity during the 2020 Summer Olympics.
More than 50,000 Fujitsu employees and more than 10,000 NEC workers have agreed to participate in the "Work from Home" program so far. Ricoh will also close its headquarters to allow 2,000 employees to work from home during the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
The "Work from Home" program was launched 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.
