EAST JAPAN RAILWAY COMPANY campaign to improving manner for using railway (No.2)

Target Audience: The target audience is the customers who came to Japan from abroad and who use Japanese railroads. Many of our customers are Japanese, but in recent years more and more foreign customers use railroads while traveling in Japan. However, because station guidance and broadcasts are mainly in Japanese, it is difficult for the foreign visitors to get enough information, since it is difficult for them to read or speak Japanese. In particular, there is little English information on manners at the station. Therefore, we thought that it is necessary to tell foreigners who visits Japan about the manner of using railway safely at Japanese stations.

Strategy Objective:We aim to reduce the problem of "Using smartphone while walking" for the safe use of the station. To do that, firstly we must make people to see our poster. We have to make our poster to be understood by the first glance, and the impression to remain strongly to the foreign customers. So we intended to attract the interest of foreigners who are interested in Japanese culture by drawing famous characters like Mt. Fuji and Ukiyo-e. The "STOP!" is calling attention by being displayed largely. By using a picture full of exoticism with a strong impact and a reduction of letters as much as possible, we make it possible for foreign customers to enjoy the atmosphere of Japan but also naturally learn the importance of the prevention of "Using smart-phone while walking".

Situation Challenge: Some station customers are using smartphones while walking, so they sometimes get injured, or drop belongings to the railroad tracks, or collided with each other. This is one of the social problems of Japan called "Using smart-phone while walking". In the "customer's voice" in our company, we received opinions of more than 10% of complaints about this problem. We understand the necessity that they search the way with a smartphone in unfamiliar place, but if troubles happen, the enjoyment of the journey may be halved. It is the responsibility of railway operators to provide easy-to-follow guidance, but at the same time, improvement of manners of railway customers is also an important issue. In order to ensure that all customers can use the station safely, we have to solve this problem.

Results Impact: It is expected that the prevention of accidents caused by "Using smartphone while walking", or the manners of the foreigners become better like "walking inside the yellow line", and that the stations become safer place for all customers. Also, we hope the foreign tourists to be interested in Japanese history through seeing the picture of the poster, and become to like Japan and would like to come back again. This poster is also showing our "hospitality". Many foreigners imagine "Kimono", "Samurai", when speaking of Japan. Unfortunately however, in Japan today there are none of them walking through town, so they cannot see them. Therefore, we hope that they fully enjoy the journey by using the railway safely, at the same time feeling the exoticism, by seeing the picture of our poster.

Why Submit: We expect that "Everyone use stations safely" and "Every foreigner who is in Japan enjoy safe traveling". Not only it is a caution but also it shows our spirit of "Japanese hospitality". The important point is that it also includes expressions of "hospitality" in the "alert". In many cases, there is no humor or familiarity in the alert poster. Usually posters are expressed in large letters of words that you want to convey, with a flashy color as the background. Since foreign customers do not know the manner of Japan, if you tell Japanese manners in a way that makes them to feel Japanese culture, not just words, you will leave an impression to their heart. In this respect, this work can be said to be a rare and valuable work with two aspects of hospitality and attention.