The difference between this man’s appearance and the sound of his voice has everyone talking.

In spite of the huge number of people passing through their turnstiles every day, train stations around Japan do their best to make rail journeys as comfortable for passengers as possible. There are lovely chimes and jingles to let commuters know when carriage doors are about to close, delightful little bird sounds to direct the visually impaired towards exits, and calm, polite-sounding announcements broadcasting information to passengers.

This attention to providing high-quality customer service was on display again in Japan recently, when a rail employee was captured making this announcement on the platform of a Japanese train station. According to Twitter user @Bufojaponicus63, who captured the scene on video, they initially thought it was a woman speaking, but when they saw who it was that was doing the talking, they were blown away to find out that the person behind the voice was actually a middle-aged man.

Take a look at the video below:

https://twitter.com/Bufojaponicus63/status/849583172601786368

Filmed at Oami Station in Chiba Prefecture, the video shows a rail employee speaking into a handheld device used to broadcast announcements on the platform. He asks passengers to mind their step and then thanks them for using the service, announcing the name of the station before updating commuters with information regarding the time and platform for the next connecting train.

It’s a very standard type of announcement commonly heard at stations around the country, but what makes it strikingly different is the man giving voice to it. Rather than speaking in a low male voice, he raises his pitch up a few levels to match the sound of a female announcer, giving it a softer, more feminine-sounding touch.

The video has been liked and shared tens of thousands of times since it appeared online, with people leaving comments like:

“They need to feature this guy on a TV programme!”
“This is customer service!”
“I can’t get over how feminine he sounds.”
“What a beautiful-sounding voice!”
“Is this how he speaks in real life?”

According to @Bufojaponicus63, this is not how the rail employee speaks in real life, as he heard him talking to a colleague later in a lower, more regular male-sounding voice. With such dulcet tones given to his announcements, though, the rail employee now has so many fans he might want to consider switching to an anime voice acting career!

Source, images: Twitter/@Bufojaponicus63