West Japan Railway Company said a strict “no work, no pay” principle applies to the incident from June last year.

The unnamed driver, however, is seeking the ¥43 in addition to ¥13 overtime – and ¥2.2m in damages (£14,411).

A company spokesperson said the dispute arose over how to interpret the cause of the delay. People online, however, sided with the driver.

“So you can reduce someone’s salary by one minute, but you can’t pay overtime in one-minute increments as well?” said one commentator.

Another wrote: “I would go crazy if I was in charge of the payroll, having to deduct minutes from people’s salaries for every mistake they make.”