Transport Ministry Official Arrested for Allegedly Pressing Station Emergency Button to ‘Get on Train’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

18:26 JST, February 13, 2023

KOBE — Police on Monday arrested a 35-year-old transport ministry employee on suspicion of pressing an emergency call button on a platform at Hanshin Electric Railway’s Kobe-Sannomiya Station in Kobe City, even though nothing was wrong at the station.

The Hyogo prefectural police arrested the man, who works for the department of the Kobe aviation traffic control at the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, on the charge of fraudulent obstruction of business.

He was quoted as saying, “I pressed [it] because I couldn’t get on the train.”

The man is suspected of pushing the button on the platform at around 10:40 p.m. on Sunday, delaying for several minutes the operation of two trains that were at the station at the time.

He was quoted as saying, “I don’t remember because I was drunk, but I think I pressed” the button.