To be on-time or not on-time

I sent my daugther out to kindergarten this morning. Like always, we were the last

one to get there. But like clockwork, the bus arrived right on time, 9.03 am sharp on the dot. In Japan, the public transportation is always on-time. The buses, trains and airplanes arrive and depart right on-time. Coming from another country, you may think that it is almost like magic how the bus drivers, train drivers and pilot keep to their schedule. And many a time, I have come to appreciate the fact that they do.

Japanese people, I realized, pay almost obsessive attention to time. Take a look at a typical train time table schedule. Can you believe that this is a time table. The first time I looked at a train time table, I almost blanked out. It looked more like an assembly language code that machines generate that no mere mortal can understand. It still baffles me how the Japanese people use these time table. Or do they?

Anyway, back to the topic. I marvel at the value that Japanese people place on time. I tell myself that if Malaysians place the same emphasize on time as the Japanese people do, there will be higher productivity across all levels. There will no longer be 2 hour waits for wedding dinners to start, no queueing up for MyKad renewal, no more traffic jams (OK, I'm exaggerating). Think of all the increase in efficiency and productivity, not to mentioned the time saved.

On the other hand, it's not all good news to be on-time. Recently there was a tragedy involving a train caused by human misjudgement. The train driver must be thinking of the repercussions of not being in time and not too much on passenger safety when he oversped and caused the train to derail. Although this is one example that depicts the devil of being on-time. I can vouch that 99.9% of the good things that do happen when things are on-time are almost taken for granted in Japan.

I learnt that Japanese have been constantly reminded of the virtue of being on time. Parents, teachers, strangers would tell their young ones that 一刻千金(いっこくせんきん）in other words, time is money. And being on-time is being able to keep a promise. I know for one, I am lousy at being on time. The clock in my room is always running 15 minutes faster. So that I would have ample time to catch up on in case I run out of time. It's really a bad habit, I know. But having been in Japan for quite sometime already, and having appreciate the fact that everybody else is on-time, I am beginning to feel that I too should start to run like clockwork. Less, I run out of time.

Boney M sang a song about money. And so does Sam Hui and many other artistes, but I have not heard a song that tells the importance of time. When you think about it, everybody has 24 hours at the start of the day. No more and no less. And how one use their time (wisely) is entirely up to them. I know for sure, the Japanese use it wisely.