Japan is well-known for its safety. A woman can walk alone through the toughest streets of Kabukicho at 3am and have nothing to worry about (save for the occasional mass stabbing and even rarer gassing, but whatever). So why are there all these old men in the train stations up on platforms with yellow armbands that say, in English, "On the alert!"?? The bullet trains and subway monitors also all proclaim "On the alert!".
...
Now even the cleaning ladies in my apartment building are on the alert... the yellow flags on their mop carts say "On safety patrol in the projects". 
I suppose I feel a little safer from those stray cats... but what if there's a rhino stampede? No need to worry, they've got plenty of old men with sticks, nets and a bucket ON THE ALERT.
