"Tokyo Compression"

[John Ashworth]

Going underground, Tokyo style

A new book from photographer Michael Wolf exposes the reality of the commuter's life on Tokyo's underground trains

o Justin McCurry
o guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 December 2010 20.00 GMT

The "luxury" of using one of the world's biggest and most efficient public transport systems comes with a price: the experience must be shared with more than eight million fellow commuters.

Despite using the Tokyo underground regularly for the last seven years, I have yet to be manhandled on to a heaving carriage by a gloved platform attendant. Then again I, like everyone else with unusual working hours, go out of my way to avoid the rush hour.

To the uninitiated, the striking thing about these images from photographer Michael Wolf's new book Tokyo Compression, aside from the lengths to which otherwise sane people will go to wedge themselves into an already bulging carriage, must be the looks of resignation among the victims. But it is the ability to tolerate an elbow in the back and a cheek unceremoniously pasted against a window that sets Tokyo's commuters apart. There are few arguments, and fights are almost unheard of; it's as if the powerless, massed ranks of the travelling public have entered into a non-aggression pact – and one that is observed, for the most part, in near silence.

That's doesn't mean Tokyoites are above misbehaving in transit. An epidemic of groping led to the introduction of women-only carriages. Frequent breakdowns in etiquette were the inspiration behind a monthly Do It At Home poster campaign to remind commuters of their manners. The list of transgressions ranges from the obvious (cranking up the volume on an iPod) to the more idiosyncratic (turning a wet umbrella into a makeshift nine-iron for a spot of golf swing practice). A personal favourite shows a cartoon rendering of a "tired and emotional" salaryman, sprawled across several seats, his head resting on his briefcase.

That image will strike a chord with many Tokyo travellers as Japan gears up for the bonenkai – forget-the-year party – season, when groups of office workers spill out of restaurants and on to the underground. And the only thing worse than being locked in an involuntary embrace with a stranger on the train is finding yourself next to one whose pallor suggests a purge is imminent.

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

"Tokyo Compression Revisited" is now out too. Have seen a copy - amazing book! Utterly weird!