Q107   What was the Ageo Incident?

A107   It was a stand taken by salaried workers against their com-muting hell that ended up causing a riot. Early in the morning of Tuesday, March 13, 1973, at the JR (then the Japanese National Railways, JNR) Takasaki Line's Ageo Station, commuters tried to board a Tokyo-bound train, but it was already full. While people forced their way onto the train, preventing the doors from closing and, thus, the train from departing, other intending passengers continued to arrive, making the platform extremely crowded. One member of the crowd got down on the tracks and started throwing stones at the train driver's window, which caused an estimated 10,000 people to riot. They took over the station office, broke the signals and set fire to newspapers.