Right now in general release there's a Japanese movie called "Railways" about a 49-year-old electronics company executive who chucks his high-paying job in Tokyo to move back to his hometown in Shimane Prefecture and realize his childhood dream, which was to be a train driver. In doing so, he not only becomes closer to his family but closer to "life," whatever that is.

Such a wish-fulfillment fantasy is a cinema genre unto itself, but the ambition to drive a train seems to have special significance in Japan, especially among men who grew up during Japan's postwar economic miracle, when the nation's train network became the life blood of that miracle. Since the privatization of the Japan National Railways in 1987, more and more lines have been going bankrupt, victims of the rise of automobile culture and the decline of the population in general. One line in Chiba Prefecture, however, has tried to extend its life by tapping into the very nostalgia that defines "Railways."

Last March, Isumi Tetsudo, which is headquartered in the town of Otaki near the east coast of Chiba, solicited new drivers, but with a catch. "Do you want to make your childhood dream come true," the advertisement said, adding, "and through your own ability?" By "ability" the company meant that the men chosen would have to pay ¥7 million each for their own training, which would take from between 14 and 24 months. The maximum age was 59, and the applicants had to be shakaijin, meaning that they were already — or, at least, had been at one point — full-time employees of a company or government office. During their period of training, the new drivers would be paid the minimum wage, and once completed they'd be hired as "contract" workers, meaning they would not receive benefits.