I Visited the World's Busiest Train Station

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Nearly 3 million people pass through Shinjuku Station every day, which is an insane number. But despite the massive number of people transported, the area around Shinjuku supports some great urbanism, with vibrant street life and lots of independent shops and restaurants.

NJB Live (my live-streaming channel): @njblive

How Tokyo's Subway Keeps On-time, Clean, and Safe
Life Where I'm From

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Additional Reading and References

Busiest station - Guinness World Records

Shinjuku Station - Wikipedia

Metro Map of Tokyo

Rail Map of Tokyo

Map of Shinjuku Station

Tomoyuki Tanaka — Japan’s major landmarks drawn as if seen by X-ray

Apology for leaving 20 seconds early

Passenger Pusher - Wikipedia

新宿グランドターミナルへの再編

Tokyo starts massive renovation project for entrances to the world’s busiest train station

Shinjuku Station is getting a ¥72.8 billion makeover to make it easier to navigate

Tokyo's Shinjuku Station undergoes S$755 million renovation to improve layout & ease congestion

JR East 2023 Financial Results

Poster; Metropolitan Railway fare chart, issued by the Metropolitan Railway, July 1886

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Chapters

0:00 Intro
1:14 Shinjuku is busy, REALLY busy
1:36 Train lines (but no Shinkansen)
2:58 Navigating the station
4:06 Exits and gates
5:12 Not very impressive-looking
5:42 Platforms are boring but great
6:48 Japanese transit myths
8:10 The Hauptbahnhof test
8:52 The great streets around Shinjuku
9:44 Trains are the best
10:15 Connections to other places
10:46 Closing time
11:20 Amenities
12:42 Future construction plans
13:29 Way too many wide roads
14:17 Avoiding busy roads
14:48 The train station becomes a mall
16:04 Real estate, not railroads
17:08 A fractured station
18:30 Conclusion
19:25 Nebula

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Watch Life Where I'm From, "How Tokyo's Subway Keeps On-time, Clean, and Safe":

[Coffeepanda]

As a Norwegian (from a country of 5 million-ish people), the idea of three million people passing through a single rail station daily is just mind-blowing to me.

[funny_monke]

The comparison to a highway is insane - more than 50 lanes! Clear proof of how much better trains are at moving people.

[CHEFPKR]

Shinjuku station, while busy and insane, still felt better than driving around LA. 100% would rather be in Shinjuku.

[nodeepthought]

As a European, soon as you said, "Take a hint, Europe." I was like "Oi that's not no actually never mind good point"

[bearcubdaycare]

I've always been irritated how slow fare gates are, forcing you to break stride. If Shinjuku gates are that fast, there's no excuse for gates everywhere not to be that fast.

[MICUTO]

I think the importance of 'little' things like the quick gates or the markings on the ground telling you where to go and where to stand in line can't be understated. Just goes to show the people responsible for this know how people move and what causes the flow of motion to stock.

[DMTruckSpotting]

“How often does the train go by?”
“So often you won’t even notice.”

[iamsandrewsmith]

I laughed when you said the construction would be finished in 2047 -- then I cried when I realized that here in the USA construction on such a project would be STARTING in 2047.

[tampabaybuccaneer]

15:43 Not here in Japan. High-speed roads have some of the highest tolls in the world. They're supposed to be removed whenever the roads are fully paid off, but the date for that keeps getting pushed back. Traveling cross-country via car is significantly more expensive than flying.

[TheDoubleBee]

14:31 "This kid was loving it." — So did the "kid" behind the camera. And the "kid" watching this video.

[StarlordStavanger]

If anyone noticed like I did @1:40 a Japanese man pulling a luggage wheel is wearing a band t-shirt called "Issues" which is a metalcore band I was heavily into from 2012 to about 2020 when they broke up. They weren't super huge, but it's crazy to see someone in Japan heard about them! Crazy and cool and random fact of the day :)

[JoeriBlomberg]

If anyone wondered, the sign at 14:23 that won't let you have any fun said:
🚫No smoking
🚫No open flames
🚫No littering
🚫No dangerous goods
🚫No assembly without permission
🚫No unauthorized selling
🚫No distribution of flyers of similar, and No speech
🚫No excessive noise
🚫No riding motorcycles or bicycles
🚫No skateboards or radio-controlled or ball playing
🚫Do not enter in flowering plants
🚫Do not lie down
🚫It will ban the act to be a nuisance to other customers

[spoddie]

So glad you included Eggslut.
-Tokyo does have night busses but they aren't very well known.- A taxi from Shibuya to Shinjuku would less than 2000 yen
The change between rail companies doesn't matter to us, everyone either has a regular pass for their commute or just use e-money like Suica and Pasmo, the computer work out the fare.

Edited: the night bus system was discountinued in 2022.

[RodebertX]

As a german guy with half of my family working in the german train/rail system let me just say that an effective system requires effective people. That means, among other things, following the rules and showing courtesy, which is where most countries will fail. For example in Germany the biggest factor contributing to late (local) trains are the people. Blocking closing doors, breaking windows, emptying fire extinguishers during the ride, beggars that sleep and relief themselves in the train, people beating each other up, going along the train tracks, etc. all just contribute a fraction to the problem but in the great sum its just a big shit sandwich. We have open train stations, so there are no gates which just invites trouble + its impossible to monitor / secure in its entirety. The track is also above ground which breaks when the temperature is either too low or too hot. I've been to Japan 2 times and enjoyed traveling the country by train. When I came back to Germany, even though the train was 10x less packed than in Japan, yet it felt more uncomfortable. Its crazy what common courtesy / consideration of the people around you can accomplish.

So yea, just my 2 cents.

[intheorigin]

7:25 in my past decade of living here, I think I’ve only seen the train pushers about a handful of times. They only appear at rush hours on heavy commuter lines (like the Saitama-to-Tokyo Saikyo line of the Chiba-to-Tokyo Keiyo line). From what I’ve heard and personally seen, they most often appear in the winter, when people’s puffy coats allow for some compression without injuring everyone involved. So while they do exist, they have become much rarer.

I would also like to add that a noteworthy change that made Tokyo’s rush hour much better was companies allowing for later starting hours, which staggered the rush hour between students (6-8) and workers (8-10) who commute. After the pandemic, the rush hour was further reduced with flexible hours and remote works becoming more mainstreamed.

So a lot of little things went into making this system what it is today. And (as of right not) I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

[nightwolfMKT]

I live in Hokkaido and one thing I really like here is that most major train stations are also shopping malls (and even a bunch of smaller stations are connected to a small one). It makes so much more sense than then being plopped way outside the city. Also something I've noticed is that supermarkets are often mini-shopping malls themselves, at least up here most of them will have a scattering of other small shops within the building.

[pixelfodder]

My wife and I just got back from our honeymoon where we spent a lot of time in-and-out of Shinjuku. While there's lots of people coming and going, you wouldn't believe its around 3 millions people per day because of how smoothly everything operates there. Much, MUCH better than what we have here in Melbourne.

[WorldwideHistoryProductions]

13:46 What if we kissed at our local eggslut, haha just kidding, unless...

[homuhomu]

When I first arrived in japan a few months ago for a 2 week vacation, I was absolutely lost, tired and had no working cellphone yet along with my luggage but the people who I approached for help were so kind. I accidentally entered the wrong train line so the station assistants let me pass through free to fix my mistake after saying where I needed to get to. Then I had trouble understanding which platform I needed to be on to go in the right direction so I asked a man who did not speak English, he kindly went up the stairs with me to show me the platform I needed despite him waiting for his own train which was arriving very soon. Many times throughout my vacation my heart was warmed by interactions like this. I was at the arcades and a fellow next to me gave me all of his extra Kancolle cards along with a special English one saying she spoke enough just like me and he had a big warm smile as he explained to me. Then at the super market a little old lady laughed and told me that I’m so tall, I could grab anything off any high shelf unlike her. I’m definitely visiting again next year