Tokyo Metro will shine signs on a station floor

Tokyo Metro, a subway^*1 company in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, will start a new test at Kita-Senju Station on September 9, 2026. The station is on the Chiyoda Line. Tokyo Metro is working with Sharp, an electronics^*2 company, and Restar, another company. The test will run for several months.

Many people use Kita-Senju Station, and some train cars^*3 are more crowded than others. Since December 2024, screens in the station hall have shown how crowded each car of the coming train is. A system called the Train Crowding Measurement System counts the people in real time^*4. Now the companies will go one step further. They will use Sharp's projection technology^*5, called Omject, to shine signs onto the floor. When a train is coming, the floor signs will point people toward the cars that have more space. The companies want to see if this spreads people out more evenly. They will also test whether the timing of the floor signs changes how people move.

Before the floor signs start, the companies will study the station as it is now. Cameras at places where the hall splits into different paths will watch how people walk. A computer will turn the pictures into numbers of people right away. The pictures themselves are not saved.

Each company has a job. Tokyo Metro plans the walking routes, gives the crowding data^*6, and provides the station. Sharp builds the system that guides the people and makes the pictures for the floor. Restar provides the measuring equipment^*7.

1. *1 subway: a train that runs under the ground in a city
2. *2 electronics: machines like TVs, phones, and computers
3. *3 cars: the parts of a train that people ride in
4. *4 real time: at the same moment that something happens
5. *5 projection technology: a way to shine pictures or words onto a surface with light
6. *6 data: information, often numbers, kept in a computer
7. *7 equipment: the tools and machines needed for a job