Until about 40 years ago, it was a daily task of rookie reporters at The Asahi Shimbun’s local branch offices to take turns going to the train station, carrying a bag of their colleagues’ handwritten articles and black-and-white developed photos.

The bag would be deposited at the station’s dedicated counter to be transported by night train to the head office where the articles would be typeset.

This process was called “genko bin,” which translates as something like “article shipping.”

One of my superiors recalled fondly, “We were supposed to take turns according to our daily duty roster, but I was made to do it every day because I was at the bottom of the totem pole.”

My superior was young then and society itself must have been young, too.

Various parts of the nation were connected by rail to enable the movement of goods. For a long time since the end of World War II, rail transport played the central role in logistics.

But in 1986, the rapid growth of parcel delivery trucking services caused the trains specializing in the transport of items and luggage to be decommissioned.

I have brought up these old stories because I recently came across the expression “modal shift” in The Asahi Shimbun.

New overtime regulations for truck drivers went into effect on April 1, putting an end to their traditional style of work. The idea of a modal shift is to switch from trucking to rail and sea transport.

Come to think of it, this is no big deal—we’ll just be going back to the old genko bin days.

I suppose the issue now is how best to rectify the problems that we’ve created in the course of our pursuit of convenience.

If we are no longer able to live without the conveniences we’ve become accustomed to, then we’ll just have to do the obvious: Pay a fair price for the meticulous service we expect to get, so that delivery workers will receive higher wages.

There are people driving their vehicles at midnight and then sweating as they run up the stairs to meet the package delivery deadline, making sure they are punctual to the second.

You are looking at only one side of the situation if you believe that just one click is all it takes to get your order delivered to your door within the day.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 3

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.