A drunken man gets up from his train seat and suddenly decks a railway employee, whose only offense was to wake him up at the end of the line.

Another passenger, sober this time, wallops a station worker talking on the phone after being asked to wait a few seconds for a schedule inquiry.

Railway employees across Japan are taking passenger anger on the chin. Hundreds of injury reports were again logged in the year to March -- a reflection, some say, of social unrest during the long recession and high unemployment.