JR West execs return part of pay over Shinkansen incident

January 6, 2018

Osaka- West Japan Railway Co. President Tatsuo Kijima said Friday that 11 executives, including himself, will return part of their pay over a recent incident that nearly caused a derailment of a Shinkansen bullet train.

The company, better known as JR West, also demoted Representative Director and Vice President Norihiko Yoshie, head of its railway operations, to the post of director at his own request, Kijima told a press conference.

Kijima and Yoshie will return half of their pay for the next three months. Besides the 11 executives, two full-time auditors will return part of their pay on a voluntary basis.

The company reprimanded the chief of its train vehicle management department over the incident, Kijima said.

Meanwhile, JR West named three officials as new vice presidents serving as representative directors, increasing the number of people at the post to four from two.

In the incident, which occurred on Dec. 11, crew members of the Nozomi No. 34 train continued operations even though they had noticed abnormalities. Later, a train car was found to have a deep crack on the undercarriage.

"I'm responsible for a defect in Shinkansen's safety management system and for greatly damaging the company's credibility," Kijima said.

The company has no time to waste to restore public trust in the safety of train operations, Kijima said, denying he intends to resign.

JR West will establish a panel of outside experts on Monday to review the incident. The panel will be chaired by Kansai University professor Seiji Abe.

The panel is expected to draw up an interim report by the end of January that will cover potential rule and system changes for safer train operations. Final proposals will be made as early as the end of March.

The eastbound train departed Hakata Station in the southwestern prefecture of Fukuoka and was stopped at Nagoya Station in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, on its way to Tokyo, sometime after the abnormalities were first noticed.

The Japan Transport Safety Board has designated the case as a serious incident that could have led to an accident, the first such designation for a Shinkansen train. Jiji Press