Japanese Bus Drivers Strike by Not Accepting Fares

Bus drivers in Japan put blankets over fare boxes and continue to drive their routes, in order to serve their passengers while on strike.

1 minute read

May 7, 2018, 5:00 AM PDT

By Casey Brazeal @northandclark


Shibukawa Limited Express

Ryobi Bus "Shibukawa Limited Express." | Cassiopeia_sweet / Wikimedia Commons

Striking bus drivers in the city of Okayama, Japan are still driving their routes, they're just not charging. To fight for more favorable contracts, the drivers are denying the company that employs them revenue without interrupting the service. Whether or not the tactic will work for them remains to be seen.

"This isn’t the first time such a strike has occurred in Japan or around the world. Both Brisbane and Sydney held fare-free days as part of labor disputes last year. The earliest documented case of a 'fare strike' goes back a protest by Cleveland streetcar workers in 1944, and similar cases involving other services have happened in Europe and Latin America prior to that," according to a separate article published by Japan Today.

Thursday, May 3, 2018 in NPR

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