Crowding, confrontations and full-on attacks. Japan’s many train fans are mostly mild-mannered enthusiasts passionate about the country’s famed railway system, but a small group is gaining surprising notoriety.
Japan’s railway system has long inspired envy around the world, with its famed punctuality, cutting-edge technology and meticulous timetables.
So it is no surprise that the country is home to a diverse landscape of train buffs, from those who enjoy poring over timetables to others who adore and even record the rumbling sound of passing trains.
Photo: AFP
However, the perhaps best-known group is a tribe dubbed “toritetsu,” Japanese for train photographers, who strive to take perfect photographs of approaching trains.
They have been around for decades, but in the past few years, reports of shouting matches, trespassing and even violence at stations have turned toritetsu into the bad boys of Japanese trainspotting.
Some say the out-of-control behavior is not entirely new, citing frenzied farewells for retiring steam locomotives in the 1960s and 1970s, but recent incidents, including the harassment of a photobombing cyclist and an assault that left a teenager with a fractured skull last year, have some enthusiasts worried.
“The manners have gotten worse for sure,” said septuagenarian Masao Oda, who has been taking train photos for about 50 years.
It is an uncomfortable feeling for toritetsu like 27-year-old Akira Takahashi.
“People now point fingers at me,” said Takahashi, whose fondest obsession is the EF66 electric locomotive model, which he describes as his “idol.”
“The negative image of us now prevails... I don’t want to be lumped together with some of us who are causing trouble,” he said.
Most fans are more like 19-year-old Ryunosuke Takagai, a university student who has been known to get up at 5am to document his passion and sometimes takes on part-time factory work to finance his hobby.
“I love everything about trains — their sound, their atmosphere,” he said. “That moment when you succeed in capturing the train you’d spent hours waiting for is truly fulfilling.”
The increasingly raucous behavior of some toritetsu might be driven by their pursuit of the perfect photo, said Jun Umehara, a freelance railway journalist who formerly worked at one of Japan’s top train magazines.
Factors including fewer “retiring” trains and more urban development mean hobbyist photographers are squeezed into smaller spaces as they chase their dream pictures, he said.
“Every train has its last moment, which, for them, is the last missing piece of the puzzle they need to make their photo collection complete,” Umehara said. “The idea of missing that final piece is almost unbearable for them.”
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