In Japan, if you are late to work, many people know about the train delay pass, you can receive from the station manager or from the train company's website later and print it off and give it to your supervisors.
But it is a little harder for public buses.
Now I take a bus to work and today it was 20 minutes late, so my manager looked up the bus company's website (Tokyu), and they faxed a late delay pass to my workplace. It's a bit old school, but the bus was over 20 minutes late and I was 3 minutes late to work, so I needed it.
Just something to keep in the mind if you live here.
Oh yeah that's a great thing to know because in my home country (France) we don't have such a system.