An increasing number of train cars are being equipped with "free spaces" that have room for baby carriages and wheelchairs.
This is part of the nationwide effort to create barrier-free spaces ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, and also because more parents are leaving their children at daycare centers at their workplaces or elsewhere.
The Toei Oedo Line, which runs through Tokyo, rolled out cars covered in images from the popular series "Thomas & Friends" at the end of July.
Called "Childcare Support Spaces," these were included in the third and sixth cars of three of the line's 58 trains.
Some of the priority seats have been removed to create spaces for strollers and wheelchairs. Stickers with "The Space for Parents and Guardians with Young Kids'" and other messages are pasted on windows and the outside of the cars.
A 36-year-old female company employee who lives along the Oedo Line was riding with her 9-year-old and 2-year-old children.
"Riding with my children is exhausting because I worry about them screaming and running around. Just having pictures of Thomas lets me relax because they draw the kids' attention," she said.
"Another effect is that it indicates to other people riding in the same car that children are more likely to be on board," said an official in charge of the matter at the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation.
The response to the cars has been positive, and not just from riders with children, the official said, adding that they planned to add more such cars.
More accessible space
These kinds of spaces on trains are becoming more common.
Seibu Railway Co. has had large free spaces it calls "partner zones" in a section of its trains on the Ikebukuro Line and Shinjuku Line since 2017.
The front of these cars has equipment for securing wheelchairs instead of seats. This makes it easier for wheelchair users to ride with their caregivers. Some cars have toilets for people in wheelchairs.
The 16 major railway companies in the Tokyo-based Japan Private Railway Association had about 4,000 cars with spaces for wheelchairs and other things in fiscal 2007.
This increased 60 percent to about 6,500 cars in fiscal 2017.
Part of this is due to the effort to make spaces accessible before the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The government wants riders with wheelchairs and strollers to be able to ride safely even in crowded cars.
In addition, with more companies having day care centers in their offices, more small children are riding trains. The number of company-run day care centers nationwide increased from 871 in 2016 to 3,817 in 2018. The number of unofficial in-house childcare facilities increased from 625 in fiscal 2012 to 1,786 in fiscal 2017.
Free spaces are expected to become even more common. East Japan Railway Co. plans to install such spaces on all its cars on the Yamanote Line by spring 2020. They will have different colored floors and thus be easy to recognize. Tokyo Metro Co. plans to introduce free spaces when cars are updated.
Yuiko Fujita, a professor of sociology at Meiji University, said, "The increase in free spaces has the effect of informing other passengers that children and wheelchair users also use trains."
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