In the 2023 study titled “The Impact of Psychological Safety on Safety Behavior,” we reported that “psychological safety” and “work engagement (hereafter, WE)” may influence “safety behavior.” However, this study aimed to investigate other factors beyond these two because other probable factors also affect safety behaviors. To achieve this, we conducted two studies: (1) identifying potential factors by analyzing internal survey data, and (2) reviewing previous studies conducted for similar purposes. The results of (1) indicated a strong correlation between the tendency to engage in “jibungotoka” (interpreting events that did not happen to oneself as if they did) and safety behaviors. From (2), we identified several individual and workplace factors that were closely related to safety behaviors. In Section 3, we have summarized the results of study (2) by research field.

Psychological safety refers to a team atmosphere in which members feel comfortable speaking up without hesitation or fear of retribution. In our company’s safety action plan, “building psychologically safe teams” is identified as a key component of our organization-wide safety framework. Information sharing and learning from mistakes are encouraged in psychologically safe teams, which is expected to reduce errors and enhance overall safety.
Numerous studies have emphasized the significance of leaders in fostering psychological safety within teams. This study aimed to identify specific leadership behaviors and conditions that enhance psychological safety by reviewing the relevant literature.

In our company, the employment of senior staff up to the age of 65 and “grand senior” staff up to the age of 70 has been progressing. This employment practice has led to an increase in the number of employees aged 60 and older who are actively engaged in frontline operations. To operate a railway, various tasks are required, including train operation, station duties, and maintenance of rolling stock and facilities. However, many of these tasks still rely heavily on human attention and judgment, making cognitive and physical functions critical.
Cognitive function refers to the mental processes involved in perceiving external information, directing attention to where it is needed, storing information in memory, and making inferences or judgments based on the situation or experience. Numerous studies have reported that many cognitive and physical functions tend to decline with age. It is therefore essential to properly assess whether such declines might affect railway safety.
Accordingly, this study focused on driving-related tasks to examine the types of errors that employees across age groups are prone to, both objectively and subjectively, by analyzing actual attention-related incidents and questionnaire responses.

We generally assume that physical and mental changes associated with aging may affect employees’ sense of workload and task difficulty. This study conducted a questionnaire survey to examine how senior employees (aged 60-65) perceive these effects and the strategies they use to cope with them. The participants included employees who had recently been designated as senior staff members and those already in senior positions.

When multiple mistakes occur in succession, they can sometimes lead to serious accidents. In this study, we refer to the phenomenon in which one mistake triggers another as an “error chain.” Our goal was to clarify the underlying causes and mechanisms of error chains. In the current fiscal year, we conducted a web-based survey targeting the general public outside the company to identify the emotions that arise immediately after an error—the first stage of the error chain. This paper presents a part of those results.

To properly recognize risks that could lead to accidents, it is essential to approach work with a consistently high level of “proactive attitude toward identifying risks.” This attitude includes thinking concretely about potential risks daily, consulting colleagues’ opinions, and learning from past incidents. In this study, we examined factors related to a proactive attitude toward risk identification using responses from the company-wide Safety Awareness Survey (hereafter referred to as the “Safety Survey”), conducted by JR West in fiscal year 2024. In particular, we focused our analysis on two aspects: the “jibungotoka tendency,” which is the inclination to relate incidents that occurred elsewhere to oneself, and JR West’s ongoing “kakunin desuga” (“Just to confirm…”) initiative.