Departures of note

Yasakazu Asano was an urban planning consultant from Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, who worked on reconstruction town planning after the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. His life changed in April 2005 when his wife and sister were killed in the JR Fukuchiyama Line (Takarazuka Line) derailment in Amagasaki, which claimed over 100 lives.

After the accident, Asano helped found the 4.25 Network, a group of bereaved families and injured survivors, and served as its caretaker. In 2007 he testified as a designated speaker at a hearing of the government's Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission (now the Japan Transport Safety Board).

Asano pressed JR West to jointly examine the causes of the accident with the victims, leading to the unprecedented establishment of a task review committee in which the bereaved and the responsible company sat at the same table. Its report was published in 2011, and a follow-up safety conference with university professors later pointed to organizational problems within JR West as a background factor.

In his later years he also reached out to bereaved families of the 2021 Taiwan train derailment, visiting them in person and offering advice based on his own experience, continuing his advocacy for railway safety until his death at 84 from heart failure.