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

A software engineer's experience with booking a train ticket online in Japan was frustrating due to confusing user interfaces, multiple regional railway companies with different platforms, and outdated design. The user had to fill out many fields and checkboxes, and was not informed that a physical credit card was required for ticket retrieval. The engineer had to cancel the booking, pay a fee, and rebook with a physical credit card. The experience was particularly frustrating because it was not clear which platform to use, and the user interface felt like stepping back into the 90s. The engineer suggests that cultural preferences for familiarity and avoiding mistakes may be contributing factors to the design of these interfaces. The experience was not unique to this user, as they observed that other websites like yahoo.co.jp and rakuten.co.jp have similarly outdated designs.