Weird news - Apologizing for being 20 seconds early

There are so many stories on the internet where services (flights / trains) get delayed for various reasons and the service provider sometimes apologizes, sometimes not and sometimes the passengers are left fuming without any information at all. So it seems weird when a service provider apologizes when the train leaves 20 seconds early - we are not talking about hours, not talking about minutes, but talking about seconds (contrast this with the case of fog when trains can sometimes be hours late in other countries such as India) (link to article):

A Japanese railway operator has issued a deep apology for the "tremendous nuisance" caused by a train departing 20 seconds early, surprising even a nation renowned for both punctuality and politeness. The Tsukuba Express train linking Tokyo and the capital's northern suburbs pulled out of Minami Nagareyama Station at 9:44:20 instead of 9:44:40. A spokesman told AFP the apology was issued because strict safety procedures were not followed. "What matters is not the 20 seconds... The point is that our formal procedure should be this: A sound rings 15 seconds before the departure, followed by an announcement asking for caution due to the closing doors, and then the doors shut," he said.