While car fans exist in Japan like they do in America, rail fans also have a strong subculture that makes an appearance in popular culture every so often.
At any unveiling of new rail cars and "last ride" for old rail cars, you can see hundreds of fans with their cameras (the above picture is when the newest Bullet Train was unveiled). Japanese Wikipedia has an extensive article on rail fetishism and classifies fans into more than a dozen categories.
At any toy store you go to in Japan, along side model cars you will also find model trains in various sizes and model landscape that allow you to create dioramas like above. The rarer models are exchanged at a premium on internet auction sites and used toy stores. I don't ever remember seeing something like this in the US.
"Timetable licensing test" is given twice a year and measures one's ability to correctly read train timetables and apply them to real world problems. While originally intended for travel operators, it caught on with rail fans, and with the availability of online timetable tools, the resulting license is rather unnecessary and have become more of a bragging tool (for the minority that care). The timetable licensing test is often mentioned in TV shows that highlight the odd things in the world.
I'm not sure how this really helps with forecast, but I thought you might find it interesting.
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