Roadmen in Japan

Have you ever seen roadmen in Japan? They look like a famous character from Star Wars with a red luminous stick. You see them often on road works in a threesome. Yesterday on my way back home I had to pass a small road work which was very well color- marked. However there worked three men. Two of them were working and one guided the people passing the building side along the red marked area, like a guide dog^^. After a polite salutation of the one roadmen the both others stopped working and saluted too. Very polite isn't it, but is it also effective? Could you imagine a road work during rush hour?^^