A railway company in Tokyo has issued a formal apology to its customers after one of its trains departed 20 seconds early.

A train on Tuesday was means to leave Minami Nagareyama railway station station on Tuesday morning at 9.44.40, but — gasp — it actually left at 9.44.20.

“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to you by our customers,” the company said.

In its formal apology, the company noted that no customers complained over the monumental stuff-up, yet staff members would be spoken to to avoid a recurrence.

Any passenger who may have missed the early-departing train only had to wait four minutes for another.

Punctuality is a big deal for trains in Japan, as workers rely heavily on public transport. Many train companies boast that their average delay time is under one minute.

By comparison, Sydney Trains consider themselves “punctual” if they arrive within five minutes of the scheduled time.