Much fun has been had in recent days over footage of Daisuke Iwata and Koichiro Horiuchi riding a scream-inducing rollercoaster in silence. A condition of reopening the Fuji-Q Highland theme park in the Covid-19 era (and the purpose of their rictus-faced demonstration) is that visitors must emulate their feat to avoid spreading thrilled exhalation into the slipstream of fellow passengers. “Please scream,” concludes the park’s new slogan, “inside your heart”.
The two corporate suits, respectively the presidents of the theme park and of the rail and bus company that owns it, are almost menacingly serene in the three-minute video. G-forces, discomfort and stress may be working mischief on their souls, but good sense, consideration for others, resignation and self-discipline win the day. They look, in other words, like pretty much every Tokyo rush-hour commuter.
The rollercoaster’s carriages may be smaller and its tracks steeper. But every working day pre-Covid-19, around 8m people in metropolitan Tokyo spent an average 80 mins miserably wearing the same impassive mask: squeezed on to trains at over 200 per cent capacity and collectively suppressing silent screams.