A Japanese rail firm has defended a safety exercise in which employees had to sit beside the tracks as bullet trains sped through tunnels at 186 miles (300km) an hour.

Almost 200 maintenance staff have had the bizarre training, the company said, in a bid to show them the potential dangers of the train and impress on them how seriously they needed to take their jobs.

The company, JR West, said it had no plans to alter the exercise despite complaints from some employees.

They introduced the training on Japan's renowned shinkansen bullet trains in 2016, after an accident in August 2015 in which part of a train's exterior fell off, a company spokesman said.

A diagram shows how workers were forced to sit by the bullet trains as they raced past at nearly 200mph in a bizarre training exercise teaching them to take their jobs seriously

He told AFP: 'The training aims to teach our maintenance staff the importance of every part of their jobs.

'We pay close attention to safety while doing the training. We will continue this training while ensuring it serves a purpose and is done safely.'

The purpose of the drill was reportedly to make clear to the staff how fast the train moved and therefore how seriously they needed to take their jobs.

But it has proved unpopular with some employees, local media reported.

'It was a horrible experience,' the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper quoted one employee as saying.

Almost 200 maintenance staff have had the training in a bid to show them the potential dangers of the train. Pictured: Passengers get on board a bullet train at Tokyo station

Another described the experience as 'just like a public flogging,' the Mainichi daily reported.

Japan's ultra-efficient shinkansen train network connects cities along the length and breadth of the country.

Despite the huge volume of passengers it serves, the network operates with an enviable punctuality rate.

It also has an unparalleled safety record, with no one ever having been killed in a crash in its half-century of service.