20 years ago Nokia was reigning supreme, mobile phones were still in the ‘Dumb’ era and Apple still had a few years left to change the rules with the iPhone and turn portable phones into smartphones. And 20 years ago, The number of people in a subway car in Japan was measured by the newspapers they read.

But today this situation has changed and The reality of smartphones is now absolute and inseparable. Xiaomi has big fans in Japan, a technological paradise and always 10 years ahead of the world in electronics. And mobile phones have definitely replaced traditional print media forever.

Changes to the Japanese subway

Japan’s MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) has been using a very common item to measure daily on trains for over 20 years: reading newspapers. Reading print media or any magazine on the Japanese subway is so common that MLIT used this as a scale to measure crowding and occupancy levels in carriages.

In other words: the density of people traveling at the same time in the subway has been shown by a series of graphs since 2001, and these graphs have been transformed into more visual, direct and easy-to-understand information: each one representing a percentage of occupancy:

one hundred%

• Seats are available.
• It can be attached to a seat, hung from a belt, or attached to a column next to the door.
• No problem moving and reading

150%

• You can spread the newspaper out to read it comfortably and easily.

180%

• You can read the newspaper even though you have to fold it or otherwise force it.

200%

• There are a lot of people and a bit crowded.
• You can read magazines but not newspapers

250%

• The train is full
• I can’t move and I can’t move my hands.
• I can’t read

Xiaomi, the favorite of the Japanese

What happens if we read the latest MILT report? Categories shortened -250% occupancy indicator is gone-, drawings are eliminated and percentages tell the story “contact with other travelers’ shoulders“, In addition “body contact“.

MILT was apparently close to hiding the cartoons, but Replacing newspaper with smartphoneHowever, the idea was shelved due to concerns about encouraging mobile phone use in a crowded train carriage.

This update eliminates people who read newspapers,representative of the tremendous change we are experiencing in society With the inclusion of smartphones, which are now an integral part of our daily lives, it is a rare sight to see someone reading a newspaper instead of looking at the news on a terminal screen, but just twenty years ago this was the most common thing in the world.

It is also worth noting that a significant portion of the mobile phones used by Japanese people in the subway are Chinese, as Xiaomi announced yesterday that it had achieved a success through its official profile on the X site in Japan. 359% increase in phone shipments in Q2 2024. This, Xiaomi’s market share in this country has risen to 6%, interestingly This puts it in third place among the companies that sell the most devices in Japan, just behind Apple and Google.

via | MILT / Xataka Mobile

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