What this article misses, and what JR East won't tell you, is that having people walking on escalators reduces their operable life span without maintenance; and

What this article misses, and what JR East won't tell you, is that having people walking on escalators reduces their operable life span without maintenance; and thus increases the costs of running a train station. (JR East posts profits every quarter despite their escalator maintenance) This is napkin math, but: Wikipedia says Japan's train ridership was 7.58 billion in 2014. Compared to 880 injuries, that's roughly a 1 in 1 million chance.