This file photo shows the sign of Kyushu Railway Co. (JR Kyushu) headquarters in the city of Fukuoka. (Mainichi/Taiki Asakawa)

       FUKUOKA -- A station staff member on night duty in southwest Japan overslept and was late to work to open up the station entrance on the morning of Nov. 7, causing 13 people to miss the first shinkansen bullet train of the day, Kyushu Railway Co. (JR Kyushu) has announced.

       According to JR Kyushu, station staff on night shift are supposed to wake up by 5:10 a.m., but the company's transportation center did not receive contact by the specified time from the employee in his 30s at Shin-Omuta Station on the Kyushu Shinkansen Line. Because the station didn't open on time, 13 people could not board the Shin-Osaka bound shinkansen that would depart Shin-Omuta Station at 6:19 a.m. Another employee reportedly headed to Shin-Omuta Station from Kumamoto Station by shinkansen, and woke up the night duty worker at 6:30 a.m.

       In addition to two alarm clocks, a device to wake up staff is installed for night shift employees, but the Shin-Omuta Station worker apparently forgot to set the alarm. JR Kyushu's public relations representative said, "We will provide thorough instructions to prevent this from happening again."

       (Japanese original by Akihiko Tsuchida, Kyushu News Department)

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