Over 1,000 stranded at west Japan station after fireworks event with boy band King & Prince

YAMAGUCHI -- More than 1,000 people missed the last train and spent the night at JR Shin-Yamaguchi Station after some 30,000 fans flocked to a May 22 fireworks event featuring popular Japanese boy band King & Prince.

West Japan Railway Co. (JR West) employees distributed items such as water and blankets, and the incident did not result in any significant issues.

Time to spare until last train, but ...

The fireworks event took place at Yamaguchi Kirara Expo Memorial Park in the city of Yamaguchi from 6:30 p.m. until around 8:30 p.m. Event organizer Universal Music LLC operated shuttle buses between the venue and Shin-Yamaguchi Station, about 10 kilometers away, for people returning home. However, the roads were congested, and it is believed that fans who could not catch the last Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train, before 11 p.m., became stranded at the station.

Buses stuck in traffic

The organizer had announced on their website and elsewhere, "It's expected to take about three hours until the last passengers board the shuttle buses after the event due to congestion." But a woman in her 40s from the city of Kobe, who attended the event with her mother in her 70s and got stuck at the station overnight, explained, "I was able to board the shuttle bus early, but there were traffic jams on the way back from the venue and the bus wasn't moving at all."

Universal Music issued a comment stating, "We apologize for any inconvenience caused, and we are grateful to JR West."

(Japanese original by Yuna Ozawa and Takatoshi Wakiyama, Yamaguchi Bureau; and Hibiki Yamaguchi, Kyushu News Department)