There are a couple of things that are important. First, (and it's a bit of a catch 22), because the trains are almost never late, they always stop at the same

There are a couple of things that are important. First, (and it's a bit of a catch 22), because the trains are almost never late, they always stop at the same platform according to the schedule. When passengers go to catch a train, they always know ahead of time what platform to go to. This massively reduces people rushing about to catch the train. On the platforms, there are indications where the doors will be when the train stops. The trains always stop in exactly the same place. Waiting passengers line up on the platform just in front of where the doors will be. They often paint a box on the pavement to show where to line up and people stand in those boxes -- moving down the platform to an box that isn't too full. When the train stops, waiting passengers move to either side of the door. They wait until all passengers have exited the train before trying to board the train themselves. Japan is a rule following culture. You can't grow up here without having that drilled into your head. People then find it common sense to wait for their turn rather than trying to get on the train early. People on the train line up in front of the doors. People who are not getting off the train move into the centre of the cars. Again: rule following culture, common sense, etc. Finally, Japan is not particularly litigious. If you try to get on/off the train when the doors are closing, it doesn't stop closing for you. It closes hard. I swear they even open it a bit and then slam it shut on you again on purpose. It hurts. Basically, it's your penalty for being a dumb ass ;-) You literally can not hold the door open. It will keep crashing shut on you until you get out of the way. The last point I can think about at the moment is that they keep track of statistics and set the schedules based on data, not hope. I was at the train station the other day and noticed that one of the train's schedule ran 1 minute later during rush hour than when it was not so busy. This is to accommodate the passengers getting on and off, presumably. That's the precision of their schedules -- 1 minute makes a difference to them. In the UK, the train isn't even officially late unless it is more than 10 minutes late and I think that's 90% of their problem.