Aya Ito takes a taxi every day to bring her twin 1-year-old boys to a nursery at her workplace thanks to a cab company that is friendly to mothers and the elderly.
"It's impossible to take a train with twin babies during rush hour," said the 36-year-old working mother who lives in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo. "The female drivers know how to hold a baby and use a stroller . . . and they loves children."
The recession and high oil prices are hitting the nation's taxi industry hard, but some companies are overcoming the adversity by offering diverse services, ranging from driving children to their piano lessons to offering a system in which people who missed their last train can share a cab.