Those pictures really take me back to when my wife and I lived in Japan. You would see cartoon-like warning signs everywhere. About the flare, a working flare is required in every car in Japan in order to pass inspection. About trains, I'm amazed that there isn't at least 20 people per day killed by trains. They tracks are in heavily populated areas with plenty of foot traffic, and a train blazes by at about 40-50mph. They have a warning noise and plastic tubes that lower as barriers to keep you from crossing, but it seems much more dangerous than trains in the states.
The fast trains are called the Shinkansen, and they don't have ordinary crossings like local trains do. Local trains could easily stop if the operator saw some car in the middle of the track.
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