The Wonders and Weaknesses of Japan’s Shinkansen ②: A High-Speed Mass Transit Marvel

In our last article, we discussed how Japan’s Shinkansen, though perhaps not spanning every single line across the country, operates profitably across its entire network. In many countries, high-speed rail is considered a segment of unprofitable business, but in Japan, this is simply normal. This success is the result of the cumulative efforts of the various JR companies that operate the Shinkansen. Today, we would like to talk more about these achievements.

Do you know how many trains run on the Tokaido Shinkansen per hour? It races between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka at 285 km/h. If one train gets delayed, another is right behind it! By the way, the Tohoku and Hokkaido Shinkansen operate at 320 km/h. A speed of 285 km/h on the Tokaido Shinkansen means that the train covers 4,750 meters every minute. This means it takes only about 12 seconds to travel 1 km. Imagine traveling 1 km in your daily life—it’s an incredible speed, isn’t it? At this speed, during peak hours, trains run as many as 15 times per hour. That interval is shorter than five minutes! A train has to enter the station, wait for passengers to board and alight, and then depart; that process easily takes two or three minutes. The scene at Shinagawa Station, where all trains stop, is truly breathtaking. Furthermore, despite this high frequency, the trains arrive and depart with impeccable precision—it’s a divine timetable achievable only in Japan and impossible elsewhere. This operating interval is almost the same as commuter trains, which really highlights its incredible efficiency.
On the Tokaido Shinkansen, every train set consists of 16 cars. With a seating capacity of 1,323 people per set, and up to 15 trains running an hour, the simple calculation shows that it can transport 19,845 people! While all cars being full is rare, during the morning and evening rush hours, the number of people transported is close to this figure. The Tokaido Shinkansen, which transports approximately 120 million people annually, is by far the biggest cash cow among all Shinkansen lines; it generates a trillion yen every year on its own. The Tokaido line has always been a major transportation artery for hundreds of years. We are confident that even the currently constructed Tokaido Maglev Shinkansen will also be profitable. If moving from Tokyo to Osaka required an 8-hour journey on conventional lines, or if the only option was a plane with a capacity of about 250 people and took one hour, post-war development in the Tomei-Kansai region might not have reached this level.

What did you think? I hope you could understand the amazing and almost unbelievable achievements made possible by Japan’s Shinkansen. However, despite all this, there are several major weaknesses to this system. In the next article, we plan to discuss those points.

See you next time!