I am currently reading a review copy of a book by Pete Dyson and Rory Sutherland exploring some of the ways that our transport networks have developed over time, and how they could perhaps be improved by considering how our brains work, and the decisions that we make.
One of the sections I have been reading directed me to a sentence which said that Japanese train stations have their own jingles.
They're known as 'hassha merodi' — literally meaning a melody for train departure, also known as eki melody.This video is excellent and introduces you to the idea of these station jingles and the composer of many of them, who used to play keyboards in a jazz funk band called Casiopea.
Check out the work of Minoru Mokaiya.
These jingles are used by passengers in different ways to help them navigate their way home, and link with the identity of those places and the emotions they feel. I like the way that on one line that is mentioned, all the jingles join together to make a single tune.
"There is a huge number of people who take the train in the metropolitan areas such as Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya and it's necessary to get people on and off in a short time. So this helps make organised queues as trains come one after another in a short time. I think trains in other countries are not as crowded as trains in Japan.
People know the doors won't close while the music is playing and it gives comfort to people."
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