Japan's trains are great. Why is booking one so hard?

A software engineer visiting Japan is struck by the contrast between the country’s impressive trains and the difficulty of booking them online. The booking process requires users to navigate unfamiliar ticket categories, checkboxes, and rules - for instance, a limited-express ticket may need to be paired with a separate basic-fare ticket or an IC card. The six regional JR companies each have their own platforms, overlapping service areas, and booking rules, leaving travelers to work out which company and system applies to their route. One booking even required the physical credit card used for payment to collect the ticket; because the traveler had used a virtual card, they had to cancel, pay a ¥560-per-person fee, and book again.

The problem is not dismissed as simply poor interface design. Older, information-dense sites and cautious, detailed processes may reflect cultural preferences for familiarity, certainty, and avoiding mistakes. But the central explanation is organizational: Conway’s law, the idea that software tends to mirror the communication structures of the teams that build it, can shape the user experience as well as the system’s architecture. In the train-booking case, the interface asks travelers to identify the railway company operating a journey from A to B, exposing internal divisions that should not be their concern. The argument is that companies may have valid internal structures and rules, but customers should not need to understand those structures just to complete an ordinary task.