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Woman in Tokyo gives birth onboard one of Japan’s busiest train lines

Oct 23, 2019 | News On Japan

Oct 23, 2019 (soranews24.com) - If you live in the Tokyo area, it’s inevitable that you’re going to spend a lot of time on public transportation. On Monday, one of the metro area’s newest residents got an early start on that by spending the first moments of their life being born aboard a moving train.

Late in the afternoon on October 21, an express train was traveling down Japan Railway’s Shonan Shinjuku Line. Pulling out of Akabane Station, it continued heading south towards downtown Tokyo’s Ikebukuro Station, but at 4:54 p.m. a passenger on the 15-car train pressed the onboard emergency notification alarm button, telling the employee who responded “There’s a woman on the train who’s about to have a baby.”

It’s only a few minutes from Akabane to Ikebukuro, and when the train pulled in to the station, paramedics were standing by on the platform. However, by that time the mother had already given birth, with the child being welcomed to the world while the train was still moving.

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