Station codes started appearing on the in-train information screens of the Yamanote line this week. As I said before, station codes, JY 17 SJK for Shinjuku, etc., are really designed as a convenience for visitors to Japan and not for the Japanese who live here. Station announcements on the PA confirm this: English announcements uses station codes but Japanese announcements do not.
Tokyu in-train info screens (above) have been using station codes the past few months but they have not been added to PA announcements. I don’t think they will. All in-train info screens in Japan show information in Japanese and English. Station codes just end up as unnecessary screen clutter.
The whole station code effort feels like one of those 1970’s era UNESCO projects to solve a problem that isn’t a problem. Would anybody of right mind say, ‘Hey I’ll meet you at station JY 17 SJK’? Of course not. ‘I’ll meet you at Shinjuku station’ works best, in any language.
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