Hassha Merodii: Japan’s Train Departure Music

On any given day, who is the most heard composer in the world?

Or could it be Minoru Mukaiya?

Even if you’ve never taken a passenger train, you know the conductor’s “All aboard” call.

It means you only have a moment before the doors close and the train pulls away, with or without you.

In countries with better and more frequent train service, an automated jingle signals that you better get on board. Commercial train companies often have their own melody.

Japan’s train stations are tremendously busy. Particularly, in large cities like Tokyo and Osaka. With the chaos of the people and the trains and announcements, rushing to get to the right train on time was stressful enough without that annoying sound.

Someone recognized that the buzzer made every commuter’s day worse. In 1971, the Keihan Electric Railway decided to do something about it.

The company replaced the buzzer with short, pre-recorded music.

Passengers liked it. And the idea spread gradually to other train lines.

In 1989, the JR East rail company hired Yamaha’s musical instrument division and composer Hiroaki Ide to create short music pieces to signal their train’s departures. The idea was adopted more rapidly after that.

These ditties are called “hassha merodii.”

Which I’ve read: translates to “train departure melodies.”

Though… Google Translate says it means “fire alley doctor.” Maybe Google’s wrong about that, or something’s lost in translation. But it prompts me to wonder if there’s such a thing as a “fire alley doctor,” and what, exactly, their specialty is.

Japanese trains are famous for running on time.

The entire culture values punctuality, and train services are known for adhering to their precise schedules. There’s also a cultural emphasis on accountability and customer service.

Now, to those of us who don’t take the train every day, 25 seconds may not seem like a big deal. But let’s say you’re a commuter on your way to work and you have to change trains in Okayama. One day, you get off your first train, rush three platforms over because you know you only have a minute to catch the second one, and get there to see it leaving without you. You’re going to be late for work.

People who need you will be disappointed. Your boss, coworkers, and clients may be angry. It might make your department or entire company look bad. You’ll have to apologize.

A lot depends on the precise timing of the trains, so it turns out that leaving passengers behind was, in fact, a severe inconvenience.

With that sort of strict scheduling, it was determined that the perfect length for the train departure melodies would be:

That gives the passengers enough warning to run, if necessary, to get on board before the doors close.

It’s not just one melody per station. It would be confusing if they all used the same melody, so each track has its own tune. If you’re in Nagoya, the train to Osaka has one melody, the train to Kanazawa has another, and so on.

The tunes not only provide the functional announcement but also try to create a pleasant and memorable experience for the passengers. The melodies are written to suggest a sense of place, cultural significance, or local pride in the city in question.

The most obvious one is for the Takadanobaba Station in Tokyo.

Here’s a video with several such melodies, though they were recorded live so you’ll hear the other sounds of the station, too.

There’s an idea in psychology called “nudge theory.”

It suggests that you can get people to do things with very subtle cues. It can be as blatant as painting footprints where you want people to walk.

It’s like the passing lane on a highway. It’s now a habit, a courtesy, even in places where the footprints weren’t used.

Recognizing that Japanese train stations are stressful, nudge theory was used to calm people down by playing bird songs over the sound systems. Audio psychologists have found that birdsongs not only rescue stress, they actually make people happier and more productive.

A more subtle solution was used to help stop people killing themselves by jumping in front of trains. The suicide rate is very high in Japan, which isn’t surprising given the cultural pressure to earn a living and raise a family with honesty and integrity. People often feel like they don’t meet society’s expectations and choose to end their lives.

People were jumping in front of trains at the rate of one a day. Officials noticed that these people tended to jump off the platform at the far ends, where there were fewer people around to stop them.

The nudge theory solution was to install softly glowing blue lights at the ends of the platforms.

With nudge theory in mind, the train departure melodies are written to have a calming effect.

This reassures the passengers that they’ve made it on time, and can now relax as the train moves on.

Likewise, the melodies played inside the trains as they are nearing the next station are more upbeat.

That’s a lot to think about when composing a train departure melody. They have to be unique to the station and train, reassure people that they’re on time, and inspire calm. And they have to do it in seven seconds.

What kind of composer can do all that?

Minoru Mukaiya played keyboards in the 1980s Jazz Fusion band Casiopea.

Here’s a live performance of their song “Galactic Funk” from 1985. If you’d like to skip to his keyboard solo, it starts around the 3:00 mark.

Not only is Mukaiya an excellent musician, he’s also a train enthusiast and software developer.

The Train Simulator games were so well done that railways asked Ongakukan to create training simulators, no pun intended, for new train engineers. So when Hiroaki Ide retired from composing, Mukaiya was the perfect replacement.

When it’s time to write a new melody, he travels to the station to see where the trains come in, learn something about the city, and to get an idea of what the passengers will be feeling as they wait for or run towards their train.

Mukaiya has written over 200 melodies for 110 stations, and he’s still writing.

Given that there are roughly 35 million passenger trips every single day in Japan, Mukaiya could well be the most heard composer today. Who knew?

But he seems vivacious enough to keep composing train melodies for another ten, twenty, or thirty years.

He certainly shows no interest in stopping. As he says:

“Being on these trains that I love so much, and hearing the music I’ve made:

“There’s no greater happiness.”

Minoru Mukaiya

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