Train travel

This might be a silly question, but my wife is under the impression that passengers have less than 30 seconds to board a subway or commuter train in Tokyo and is hesitant to visit. Can I confidently dispel her of this fear?

The time for a train to stop is often just around 30 seconds, which is suffiecient for everybody to alight and board. It is a little longer at big stations and during rush hours.

When you are standing less than two meters from the door of the train, 30 seconds is a really long time.
When the system is busy, it is sometimes 45 seconds. If it gets to a minute, then the trains can start to run late as some lines have a train each 100 seconds. People are prepared to get off, and get on in advance of a train arriving.
Here is a simple experiment/counter example - how long does it take her to get her front door keys, unlock the door and get into your house. Answer, way less than 30 seconds.

It takes even less time than opening your front door.

Just picture: you are standing in a queue right in front of a door. Door opens. People from the inside spill out (in an orderly fashion) through the middle. The waiting people are towards the right and left of the door. Then first person in row steps in and continues versus the inside. Everyone else in the row follows her / him in an orderly fashion and once EVERYONE in that row is inside the door closes.

This entire process takes a few seconds. Because everyone is prepared for it and just needs to walk a very small distance.

Even in the busiest hours it doesn’t take longer. What can be daunting is at busy times to get in an already packed car. The best advice there is to avoid commuter (!) trains during morning rush hour. (Evening rush hour isn’t that bad). Waiting for the next train in some stations (the ones where a train starts new) can resolve the problem. But generally the next train will be just as full as the previous one.

I trust there are millions of YouTube videos of people getting on/off trains. Look for some outside of rush hour if you want to convince your wife.

For long distance trains it is also very easy. You know your door, there are markings on the platform where to queue up, so for everyone to get on the Shinkansen within a few seconds is not complicated. The one thing you should NOT do is bring someone into the train but you yourself are not traveling. Ie you need to leave again in that short time. That might be recipe for disaster.

Agree with LikeBike, try to avoid rush hour, say 4.30PM to 7PM. Also I would avoid Shinkuju station unless you want to be mentally scarred for life. But otherwise it is pretty civilised, save for a bit of drunkenness later at night.

It would also be relevant to say that the busiest train stations in the world are almost all in Japan - only three non-Japanese stations make the top 50. Even with the huge number of people riding the trains, it is very quick/efficient.
And, even for people in wheelchairs, the placement of ingress/egress ramps by staff, getting elderly/infirm people on/off still only takes a very short amount of time (less than a minute).
Shinkansen trains do stop for longer (as do some express trains), and it usually works ok. The exceptions are people that don't know how to get on a train in large groups (i.e. not using all the doors as an example, or moving to their reserved seats quickly and blocking other people from getting on).

Thanks to all. The front door and keys is a great idea. And watching a youTube.

If you aren't in a hurry and don't mind walking a bit more, then take the end cars, either end. Most of the time, the escalators and stairs are towards the middle of the station and people know where they are at the station they wish to alight. Using the ends cars, in most cases, will put you away from them, so people don't board there as often as they do the middle cars.

This YouTube video is so relaxing that your wife will want to come to Japan to experience the train riding.

https://youtu.be/ZT6H_XMDm7s?si=988GX6MLgZgxRV1O

It was filmed during the day time outside of rush hour. So yes, there are more busy times but it explains well how everything works.

「passengers have less than 30 seconds to board a subway or commuter train in Tokyo 」

This is absolutely true, but there are two important side notes to remember:
1. For commuter trains/subways, the ticket you buy isn't for a specific train. Instead, it's for a distance along the line. So, if you buy a ticket for the distance from Station A to Station B, walk to the platform, and for whatever reason don't get on the train before it pulls away, don't worry. You can still use your ticket for the next train that comes, or any of the ones after that.

2. In big cities in Japan, commuter trains/subways run very frequently especially in Tokyo. If you get to the platform and miss the train, the next one is likely to come in less than 10 minutes, and may come in as little as 4 minutes.

If you've grown up in communities where you usually drive everywhere, you might think of getting on a train as being like getting on an airplane or ferry, like it's an unusual, complex process that will take a lot of time (having grown up in Los Angeles, this was largely my image of trains before I moved to Japan). But in a society where taking trains is the norm, 30 seconds is usually more than enough time for everyone who needs to to get on and off, especially since they're not looking for assigned seats or stowing luggage after they get on the train.