Sagami Railway and Adobe hope AI can help stop Japanese train photographers from being jerks

Finally, a use of AI we can all get behind.

The toritetsu subset of Japanese train otaku which specializes in photography has long been notorious for a string of anti-social behavior unbecoming of their seemingly relaxing hobby. Reports of violence, vandalism, and general poor manners are widespread as these shutterbugs vie for the best shot of the rarest trains around. Railways have also made efforts to channel this passion for trains into something more positive, but problems still persist.

Now, Sagami Railway in Kanagawa Prefecture has teamed up with software maker Adobe to find ways to get that perfect shot without punching other photographers, cursing out staff, or cutting down trees. On 24 November, at Hoshikawa Station in Yokohama City, a workshop was held to teach toritetsu how to use Adobe Express’s generative AI to remove unwanted people or objects from photos.

As a case study, who could forget that time dozens of toritetsu waited in the middle of the night to get the first photos of a new rolling stock on the Enoden line in Kanagawa, only to have a large man on a bicycle riding between them and it with his arm outstretched? Due to the contentious nature of the incident, video of it is often quickly removed from social media and YouTube, so I just got Adobe Photoshop to generate a similar image.

▼ Shortage of logic aside, it’s fairly close to the real incident.

After that, I popped it into the Adobe Express app on my phone. Rubbed blue stuff on the guy with my finger and made him go away.

▼ Problem solved!

▼ Actually, those wires are ugly so let’s ditch those too.

▼ And you know what? I’m not all that crazy about trains anyway. How about a sailboat?

Bear in mind, I just did super-fast, one-shot edits and it’s possible to get better results with more time and effort, especially if I had gone to that workshop. This may not satisfy the purists among toritetsu, of whom most are, but there was some positive feedback at the workshop, with one attendee liking how it cleanly removed overhead wires and hands with a natural-looking result.

Even if it means just a few less people trespassing and destroying property then it’s a job well done. Readers of the news, however, seem to feel the problem is much too large to be cured with some AI editing tools.

“Now, we need a way for AI to erase the toritetsu.”
“Or just ban photography on station platforms.”
“These guys are pretty anti-processing, I think.”
“I think the toritetsu’s issues run much deeper than this.”
“I don’t get why they’re against editing. The photo itself is already inherently altered from what’s seen by the human eye.”

As the last comment pointed out, the news also sparked some debate over how much processing crosses that line of no longer being photography and becoming CGI. If AI editing was considered acceptable among these people, then why not just stay home and generate images of trains all day?

▼ You all have fun screaming at each other. I’ll stay home with my trains made of cheese.

Besides that, the ability to remove obstructions from images on Photoshop has been around for a long time and toritetsu never even seemed to embrace that. It required a lot more skill and effort back then, but probably not as much as breaking into a train yard and dismantling signs while evading security.

I’m willing to give Adobe credit for putting the idea out there, even if it is in a bit of a self-promotional way. Unfortunately, this probably won’t be the end of the mayhem caused by people who like to take pictures of trains.

Source: Asahi Shimbun, Itai News
Images: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Express
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