let's dance

Looks like a wicked art performance. but no, it's dead-serious japan.
these guys keep people from crossing the road. the road emerges out of one of seibu departmentstore's parking garages and as you can see it is behind a streetlight. the streetlight will switch to red for pedestrians automatically once two or three cars are waiting to get out. common sense in japan is that one person is there to warn pedestrians about streetlight suddenly (unexpectedly??) switching to red...
by the way, we are talking about tokyo where you'll whitness people around midnight waiting at streetlights on empty roads even in the most remote outskirts of the town or in pouring rain...
anyway, as i said you will get used to seeing one person doing this part-time job in tokyo, but like three of them, i figured was worth a picture.
in times where i question the meaning behind what i myself am doing all day long at my job... these guys in comparison must have a hard time reflecting.