This autumn, several typhoons reached Japan. Typhoon Vongfong, the 19th typhoon this year, hit almost all parts of Japan during the second weekend of October and on the following Monday, a national holiday.

Several local governments or other responsible organizations issued formal advisories for evacuation in an attempt to reduce damage ("gensai" in Japanese). Among these, the decision by West Japan Railway, made public nationwide on Oct. 12, must have surprised a considerably large number of people. The cancelation of all train services in the Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe areas from 4 p.m. the following day was of an unprecedented large scale and unusually early. We can safely judge it as timely if we take into consideration the possible usefulness of the announcement in terms of avoiding damage to many expected passengers.

But the next day it turned out that the rainstorm was not as "disastrous" as expected even though the typhoon passed through those areas. Other private railways operated trains as usual to fulfill the task of routine transportation.