Point and Call: Why the UK Should Pinch Japan’s ‘Shisa Kanko’ Safety Hack

Ever watched Japanese rail staff making dramatic hand-signals and shouting “All clear!” at empty tracks? That’s Shisa Kanko, or Point and Call—a century-old ritual that keeps Japan’s transport system freakishly safe and on time. One landmark study showed an 85 % drop in mistakes when workers pointed and called versus doing nothing at all.

What is Shisa Kanko?

1. Look at the item you need to check (signal, switch, medication label).
2. Point at it with your finger.
3. Say out loud what you see (“Signal green, proceed”).
4. Hear your own words, closing the feedback loop.

That extra second of multi-sensory confirmation forces the brain to focus, wiping out autopilot errors.

Proof it works

• Railways: Controlled trials on Japanese networks cut operational slips from 2.4 to 0.4 per 100 actions.
• Manufacturing & aviation: Toyota, JR East and airlines borrow the method for final-assembly and cockpit checks. Fewer mis-torqued bolts, fewer missed switches.
• Healthcare pilots: Hospitals using Point and Call during drug rounds report sharper nurse focus and fewer medication mix-ups.

Why Britain should care

We’re swimming in “avoidable” incidents—signals passed at danger, wrong-site surgeries, warehouse pick errors. Shisa Kanko attacks that exact weak spot and costs basically nothing to roll out.

Sectors that could benefit fast

• Rail & Tube – Drivers and platform staff vocalising signal states could slice near-misses.
• NHS wards & pharmacies – Pointing at patient IDs and drug names before dispensing.
• Warehousing & e-commerce – Pickers confirming SKU and quantity out loud.
• Utilities & field maintenance – Engineers pointing to isolation switches and verbally confirming “power off”.
• Construction sites – Crane operators and banksmen synchronising load checks.

How to introduce it (without eye-rolling)

1. Start small – Pick one critical task (e.g. door close on a train) and trial the ritual for a month.
2. Make it visible – Posters, short demo videos, supervisors modelling the behaviour.
3. Keep the words short – Two- or three-word calls beat tongue-twisters.
4. Bake it into SOPs – Once staff feel the rhythm, lock it into safety manuals and onboarding.
5. Celebrate near-miss saves – Share stories where Point and Call caught a slip; social proof keeps it alive.

Objections you’ll hear (and quick answers)

• “It looks silly.” – So did hi-vis vests once. Safe beats stylish.
• “Takes too much time.” – A two-second call is cheaper than a 20-minute incident report.
• “Brits will just mumble.” – Fine: make the call an assertive whisper and crank up the finger-point. The multi-sensory bit is what matters.

Learn more

• Background on Pointing and calling.
• JR East case studies show incident numbers falling steadily since the 1960s.

Final thought

Clicks, comments and algorithms may rule the internet, but in the real world a finger, a voice and the courage to look a bit daft for a heartbeat can save lives. Give Shisa Kanko a whirl and watch those near-miss graphs nosedive.

(Stick around—next up I’ll be trialling Point and Call on my dev workflow to stamp out command-line typos.)