CNN called the crews the 7-minute miracle. The president of France's national railway came to watch and wanted to bring the idea home. Professors from Harvard came too, and Tessei became a Harvard Business School case study.
The crews were still ordinary people, about half men and half women, with an average age of 52. One supervisor, after 17 years with the company, described her job as being like a mother's, watching younger workers grow.
Not long before, a passenger had pointed at a cleaner to warn a child.
Before long, railway leaders were coming from other countries to watch them work. And each time a bullet train glided into Tokyo Station, the crew was lined up on the platform, ready to bow.
