Rail transport in Japan is a major means of passenger transport, especially for mass and high-speed travel between major cities and for commuter transport in urban areas. It is used relatively little for freight transport, accounting for just 0.84% of goods movement. The privatized network is highly efficient, requiring few subsidies and running with extreme punctuality, though since privatization, several unprofitable but socially valuable lines have been closed by operators.
Overview Rail transport services in Japan are provided by more than 100 companies, including: Six Japan Railways Group (JR) regional companies (state owned until 1987) which provide passenger services: JR Central, JR East, JR Hokkaido, JR Kyushu, JR Shikoku, and JR West The nationwide JR Freight company 16 major regional companies which provide railway services as part of their corporate operations Dozens of smaller local railways
Many of the private rail companies rank among the top corporations in the country. Railways were built by private corporations developing integrated communities along the railway lines, allowing them to achieve profitability by diversifying into real estate, retail, and numerous other businesses. These rail integrated communities are a form of transit oriented development unique to the rail system in Japan. Rail integrated communities increase walkability in these urban spaces. As they are to be used by pedestrians, they include sidewalks and bikeways. Regional governments, and companies funded jointly by regional governments and private companies, also provide rail service.
There are of rail crisscrossing the country. JR (a group of companies formed after privatization of JNR) controlled 20,135 km of these lines as of March 31, 1996, with the remaining in the hands of private enterprise local railway companies. Japan's railways carried 9.147 billion passengers (260 billion passenger-kilometres) in the year 2013–14. In comparison, Germany has over of railways, but carries only 2.2 billion passengers per year.The World Factbook: Country Comparison :: Railways Because of the massive use of its railway system, Japan is home to 46 of the world's 50 busiest stations.The 51 busiest train stations in the world– All but 6 located in Japan ‹ Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion. Japantoday.com. Retrieved on 2014-05-24.
The major usage is of urban and intercity lines, and around the time of the privatisation of JNR, many unprofitable local and rural lines were closed, especially in Hokkaido and Kyushu. However, with patronage on many non-urban local lines continuing to decline due to factors such as rising levels of car ownership and declining rural populations, further closures are planned. For example, On October 16, 2015, JR West announced that it was considering closing the Sanko Line due to poor patronage, and was in discussion with the two prefectures served by the line, Shimane and Hiroshima, as well as other municipalities served, concerning future plans. In fiscal 2014, the line carried an average of 50 passengers per km per day, compared to 458 per km per day in 1987. The entire line closed on March 31, 2018.
On November 19, 2016, JR Hokkaido's President announced plans to further rationalise its network by up to , or ~50% of the current network, including closure of the remaining section of the Rumoi Main Line (the Rumoi - Mashike section closed on December 4, 2016), the Shin-Yubari - Yubari section of the Sekisho Line, the non-electrified section of the Sassho Line and the Nemuro Line between Furano and Kami-Ochiai Junction. Other lines including the Sekihoku Main Line, Senmo Main Line, the Nayoro - Wakkanai section of the Soya Line and Kushiro - Nemuro section of the Nemuro Line are proposed for conversion to Third Sector operation, but if local governments are not agreeable, such sections will also face closure.
Fukuoka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya, Osaka, Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo and Yokohama have subway systems. However, unlike Europe, the vast majority of passenger traffic is on suburban commuter trains that criss-cross metropolitan areas. In addition, many cities have streetcar and monorail networks.
Japan pioneered the high-speed shinkansen or "bullet train", which now links Japan's largest cities at speeds of up to . However, other trains running on the conventional line or "zairaisen" remain relatively slow, operating at fastest and mostly under , most likely due to the wide usage of narrow-gauge tracks they operate on.
Japan's railways carried 31 million tons (21 billion tonne-kilometres) of goods in 2013–14. The share of railways in the national logistics is as small as 6.2% (2010), by far the lowest in the G8.
History
Railways are the most important means of passenger transportation in Japan, maintaining this status since the late nineteenth century. Government policy promoted railways as an efficient transportation system for a country that lacks fossil fuels and is nearly completely dependent on imports.
Rural land near large cities was acquired cheaply by private railway companies from the late nineteenth century, which then built lines that became the backbone of urban transport between the suburbs and cities formed around the railway lines radiating out from metropolitan areas, similar to suburban growth around railways in other nations.
Despite this efficiency, growing affluence and associated car ownership led to road transportation usage increasing to the detriment of rail from the 1960s. The relative share of railways in total passenger kilometers fell from 66.7 percent in 1965 to 42 percent in 1978, and 29.8 percent in 1990, although this still accounted for the largest percentage of the OECD member countries.
The figure is 43.5% (as of 2001) in the largest metropolitan areas in Japan: Tokyo (including Chiba, Saitama, Tokyo, and Kanagawa Prefectures), Osaka (including Kyoto, Osaka, and Hyōgo Prefectures), and Nagoya. Private automobiles in Greater Tokyo account for less than 20% of daily trips as car ownership is restricted to those with a dedicated parking space.
Timeline 1872: Opening of Japan's first railway between Edo (Tokyo) and Yokohama by Masaru Inoue 1881: Foundation of Nippon Railway, Japan's first private railway company 1882: Opening of Horonai Railway, first railway in Hokkaido 1888: Opening of Iyo Railway, first railway in Shikoku 1889: Opening of Kyushu Railway, first railway in Kyushu 1889: Completion of the Tōkaidō Main Line 1893: Class 860 steam locomotive, first locomotive built in Japan 1895: Opening of Japan's first streetcar in Kyoto 1895: Japan's acquisition of railway in Taiwan 1899: Opening of Keijin Railway, first railway in Korea 1906: Opening of first railway in Karafuto 1906: Foundation of South Manchuria Railway 1906–1907: Nationalization of 17 private railways 1914: Opening of Tokyo Station 1925: Inauguration of the Yamanote Line 1927: Opening of Tokyo subway, the first subway in the East 1942: Opening of Kanmon Tunnel connecting Honshu and Kyushu 1945: End of World War II; railways were severely damaged 1949: At the behest of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Japanese Government Railways (JGR) was reorganized to become a state-owned public corporation named the Japanese National Railways (JNR) 1956: Completion of electrification of the Tōkaidō Main Line 1958: Kodama, the first EMU express between Tokyo and Osaka 1960: Hatsukari, the first DMU express between Ueno (Tokyo) and Aomori 1964: Opening of the first Shinkansen line between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka 1975: Retirement of steam locomotives from all JNR services (switchers remained until 1976) 1980: Enactment of JNR Reconstruction Act; low-profit lines were to be abandoned 1987: Privatization of the JNR; the Japan Railways Group companies succeeded the former JNR. 1988: Opening of Seikan Tunnel connecting Honshu and Hokkaido 1988: Opening of Great Seto Bridge connecting Honshu and Shikoku
Classifications of rail transport in Japan
Types of operators
JR
The Japan Railways Group, more commonly known as JR Group, is a group of successors of the government-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR). The JR Group lies at the heart of Japan's railway network, operating almost all intercity rail services and a large proportion of commuter rail services.
The six passenger operating companies of the JR Group are separated by region, but many operate long-distance train services beyond their regional boundaries. The six companies are: Hokkaido Railway Company, East Japan Railway Company, Central Japan Railway Company, West Japan Railway Company, Shikoku Railway Company, and Kyushu Railway Company.
Freight service belongs to Japan Freight Railway Company or JR Freight which operates all freight network previously owned by JNR.
Major private railways Japan also features multiple competing private railway systems. In post-war Japan, the Japanese government encouraged private corporations to develop their own mass transit systems in order to quickly rebuild the country's urban transport networks.
Private rail lines were encouraged to compete with each other as well as the national rail lines with the government's role limited to regulation of fares. In exchange for developing rail lines, private corporations were given business opportunities to diversify their operations and develop the real estate surrounding their railway networks.
By allowing private corporations to control transit oriented developments as well as railway lines, planned communities were facilitated allowing private railway operators to establish a vertically integrated business of developing residential, business, industrial and retail land and the commuting methods used by the populace to travel between such areas.
As such, through diversification of their business, the majority of the private railways in Japan are financially independent and their railway operations are usually profitable, in sharp contrast to most transit networks in other countries.
The classifies the following 16 companies as the major private railways of Japan. These companies, in total, operate 2,870.1 kilometers of rail. In a one-year period from April 2009, a total of 9.46 billion passengers (118 billion passenger kilometers) traveled by means of these major railways. Tobu Railway Seibu Railway Keisei Electric Railway Keio Corporation Odakyu Electric Railway Tokyu Corporation Keikyu Corporation Tokyo Metro Sotetsu Meitetsu Kintetsu Railway Nankai Electric Railway Keihan Electric Railway Hankyu Corporation Hanshin Electric Railway Nishitetsu
Other railways Other railway operators include: City governments (municipal transportation bureaus) "Third-sector railway" companies funded jointly by regional governments and private companies Other minor private railway companies
Railway and tram In the legal sense, there are two types (with several subcategories) of rail transportation systems in Japan: and . Every public rail transportation system under government regulation in Japan is classified either as railway or tramway. In principle, tramways can have sections shared with road traffic while railways cannot, but the choice may seem rather arbitrary in certain cases. For example, Osaka Metro is a tram system while subways in other cities are railways.
Railways and trams are respectively regulated by the and the .
Categories of railway Under the Railway Business Act, operations of "railways" (in the legal meaning) are divided into three categories, defined as follows:
: Operating passenger or freight railway services (except tramways) on one's own railway. : Operating passenger or freight services on railway infrastructure operated/constructed by another railway business. : Constructing railway infrastructure for use by a Category 1 or Category 2 railway business.