Editing Shinkansen (section)

== History ==
[[File:JNR SystemMap 19641001.png|thumb|left|A JNR map from the October 1964 English-language timetable, showing the then-new Tokaido Shinkansen line (in red) and conventional lines]]
[[File:0 fuji.JPG|thumb|left|A 0 series set in front of [[Mount Fuji]]]]

Japan was the first country to build dedicated railway lines for high-speed travel. Because of the mountainous terrain, the existing network consisted of {{RailGauge|1067mm|lk=on}} [[Narrow-gauge railway|narrow-gauge]] lines, which generally took indirect routes and could not be adapted to higher speeds due to technical limitations of narrow-gauge rail. For example, if a standard-gauge rail has a curve with a maximum speed of {{convert|145|km/h|mph|abbr=on}}, the same curve on narrow-gauge rail will have a maximum allowable speed of {{convert|130|km/h|mph|abbr=on}}.<ref name=":5" /> Consequently, Japan had a greater need for new high-speed lines than countries where the existing [[Standard-gauge railway|standard-gauge]] or [[Broad-gauge railway|broad-gauge]] rail system had more upgrade potential.

Among the key people credited with the construction of the first Shinkansen are [[Hideo Shima]], the Chief Engineer, and [[Shinji Sogō]], the first President of [[Japanese National Railways]] (JNR) who managed to persuade politicians to back the plan. Other significant people responsible for its technical development were [[Tadanao Miki]], [[Tadashi Matsudaira]], and [[Hajime Kawanabe]] based at the [[Railway Technical Research Institute]] (RTRI), part of JNR. They were responsible for much of the technical development of the first line, the [[Tōkaidō Shinkansen]]. All three had worked on aircraft design during [[World War II]].<ref name="Hood">{{Cite book | last = Hood | first = Christopher P. | title = Shinkansen – From Bullet Train to Symbol of Modern Japan | series = Routledge Contemporary Japan Series | publisher = Routledge | location=London | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=cwbklrvmS-oC | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-0-415-32052-8 | pages = 18–43}}</ref>

=== Early proposals ===
The popular English name ''bullet train'' is a literal translation of the Japanese term {{Nihongo|''dangan ressha''|弾丸列車}}, a nickname given to the project while it was initially discussed in the 1930s. The name stuck because of the original [[0 Series Shinkansen]]'s resemblance to a [[Minié ball]] and its high speed.

The ''Shinkansen'' name was first formally used in 1940 for a proposed standard-gauge passenger and freight line between Tokyo and [[Shimonoseki]] that would have used steam and electric locomotives with a top speed of {{convert|200|km/h|mph|abbr=on}}. Over the next three years, the Ministry of Railways drew up more ambitious plans to extend the line to Beijing (through a [[Japan–Korea Undersea Tunnel|tunnel to Korea]]) and even [[Singapore]], and build connections to the [[Trans-Siberian Railway]] and other trunk lines in Asia. These plans were abandoned in 1943 as Japan's position in World War II worsened. However, some construction did commence on the line; several tunnels on the present-day Shinkansen date to the war-era project.<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last=Hood |first=Christopher P. |title=Shinkansen: From Bullet Train to Symbol of Modern Japan |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-32052-8 |pages=21–23}}</ref>

{{See also|Greater East Asia Railroad}}

=== Construction ===
Following the end of World War II, high-speed rail was forgotten for several years while traffic of passengers and freight steadily increased on the conventional [[Tōkaidō Main Line]] along with the reconstruction of Japanese industry and economy. By the mid-1950s the Tōkaidō Line was operating at full capacity, and the Ministry of Railways decided to revisit the Shinkansen project. In 1957, [[Odakyu Electric Railway]] introduced its [[Odakyu 3000 series SE|3000 series SE]] [[Romancecar]] train, setting a world speed record of {{convert|145|km/h|mph|0|abbr=on}} for a narrow-gauge train when JNR leased a trainset in order to perform high-speed tests.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nishiyama |first=Takashi |title=Engineering War and Peace in Modern Japan, 1868–1964 |date=2014 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-1-4214-1266-5 |page=124 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oG3eAgAAQBAJ |access-date=24 May 2024 |language=en}}</ref> This train gave designers the confidence that they could safely build an even faster standard-gauge train. Thus the first Shinkansen, the 0 series, was built on the success of the Romancecar.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}

In the 1950s, the Japanese national attitude was that as was happening in the United States, railways would soon be outdated and replaced by air travel and highways.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Shinkansen Turns 50: The History and Future of Japan's High-Speed Train |url=https://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00078/ |website=nippon.com |access-date=24 May 2024 |language=en |date=1 October 2014}}</ref> However, [[Shinji Sogō]], President of [[Japanese National Railways]], insisted strongly on the possibility of [[high-speed rail]], and the Shinkansen project was implemented.<ref name="JRTR">{{Cite journal | last = Wakuda | first = Yasuo | title = Japanese Railway History 10- Railway Modernization and Shinkansen | journal = Japan Railway & Transport Review | volume = 11 | pages = 60–63 | publisher = Japan Railways (JR) | url = http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr11/history.html |access-date=21 September 2010 |archive-date=13 June 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110613154641/http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr11/history.html }}</ref>

Government approval came in December 1958, and construction of the first segment of the [[Tōkaidō Shinkansen]] between Tokyo and [[Osaka]] started in April 1959. The cost of constructing the Shinkansen was at first estimated at nearly 200 billion yen,{{efn|194,800 million yen}}({{inflation|JP|194800000000|start_year=1959|fmt=eq||cursign=¥}}) which was raised in the form of a government loan, railway bonds and a low-interest loan of US$80 million ({{inflation|US|80000000|start_year=1959|fmt=eq||cursign=$}}) from the [[World Bank]]. Initial estimates, however, were understated and the actual cost was about 380 billion yen.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Straszak |editor1-first=A. |editor2-last=Tuch |editor2-first=R. |title=The Shinkansen High-Speed Rail Network of Japan |date=1977 |publisher=Proceedings of an IIASA Conference, 27–30 June 1977 |pages=15, 18–19 |url=https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/1225/1/XB-80-508.pdf}}</ref> As the budget shortfall became clear in 1963, Sogo resigned to take responsibility.<ref name="Smith">{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first = Roderick A. |title = The Japanese Shinkansen |journal = The Journal of Transport History |volume =24/2 |issue =2 |pages = 222–236 |publisher = Imperial College, London |year = 2003 |doi =10.7227/TJTH.24.2.6 |s2cid = 109409322 }}</ref>

A test facility for rolling stock, called the Kamonomiya Model Section, opened in [[Odawara, Kanagawa|Odawara]] in 1962.<ref>{{cite web |title=Shinkansen |url=https://doyouknowjapan.com/shinkansen/ |website=Encyclopedia of Japan |access-date=24 May 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Initial success ===
[[File:JNR 19641001 Table1.png|thumb|upright=1.2|1964 JNR Passenger Timetable, Table 1, showing shinkansen service on the New Tokaido Line]]

The Tōkaidō Shinkansen began service on 1 October 1964, in time for the [[1964 Summer Olympics|first Tokyo Olympics]].<ref>Fukada, Takahiro, "[http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081209i1.html Shinkansen about more than speed]", ''[[The Japan Times]]'', 9 December 2008, p. 3.</ref> The conventional Limited Express service took six hours and 40 minutes from Tokyo to Osaka, but the Shinkansen made the trip in just four hours, shortened to three hours and ten minutes by 1965. It enabled day trips between Tokyo and Osaka, the two largest metropolises in Japan, significantly changed the style of business and life of the Japanese people, and increased new traffic demand. The service was an immediate success, reaching the 100&nbsp;million passenger mark in less than three years on 13 July 1967, and one billion passengers in 1976. Sixteen-car trains were introduced for [[Expo '70]] in Osaka. With an average of 23,000 passengers per hour in each direction in 1992, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen was the world's busiest high-speed rail line.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Okada |first=Hiroshi |date=October 1994 |title=Features and Economic and Social Effects of The Shinkansen |url=https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/jrtr03/pdf/f09_oka.pdf |journal=Japan Transport and Railway Review |volume=3 |pages=9–16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220420121953/https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/jrtr03/pdf/f09_oka.pdf |archive-date=20 April 2022}}</ref> As of 2014, the train's 50th anniversary, daily passenger traffic rose to 391,000 which, spread over its 18-hour schedule, represented an average of just under 22,000 passengers per hour.<ref>{{cite news |date=20 September 2014 |title=Half century on the shinkansen |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2014/09/20/editorials/half-century-shinkansen/#.WsU4yNPwbOQ |newspaper=The Japan Times}}</ref>

The first Shinkansen trains, the [[0 Series Shinkansen|0 series]], ran at speeds of up to {{convert|210|km/h|mph|0|abbr=on}}, later increased to {{convert|220|km/h|mph|0|abbr=on}}. The last of these trains, with their classic bullet-nosed appearance, were retired on 30 November 2008. A driving car from one of the 0 series trains was donated by JR West to the [[National Railway Museum]] in [[York]], [[United Kingdom]] in 2001.<ref name="railwaygazette20010801">{{cite web |date=1 August 2001 |title=Shinkansen comes to York |url=http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/shinkansen-comes-to-york.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514234858/https://www.railwaygazette.com/news/shinkansen-comes-to-york/29664.article |archive-date=14 May 2021 |access-date=14 September 2014 |work=Railway Gazette}}</ref>

=== Network expansion ===
The Tōkaidō Shinkansen's rapid success prompted an extension westward to [[Okayama]], [[Hiroshima]] and [[Fukuoka, Fukuoka|Fukuoka]] (the [[San'yō Shinkansen]]), which was completed in 1975.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal |last=Taniguchi |first=Mamoru |date=1993 |title=The Japanese Shinkansen |journal=[[Built Environment (journal)|Built environment]] |volume=19 |issue=3/4 |page=216 |jstor=23288577 }}</ref> Prime Minister [[Kakuei Tanaka]] was an ardent supporter of the Shinkansen, and his government proposed an extensive network paralleling most existing trunk lines. Two new lines, the [[Tōhoku Shinkansen]] and [[Jōetsu Shinkansen]], were built following this plan. Many other planned lines were delayed or scrapped entirely as [[Japanese National Railways|JNR]] slid into debt throughout the late 1970s, largely because of the high cost of building the Shinkansen network.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} By the early 1980s, the company was practically insolvent,{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} leading to its privatization in 1987.

Development of the Shinkansen by the privatised regional JR companies has continued, with new train models developed, each generally with its own distinctive appearance (such as the [[500 Series Shinkansen|500 series]] introduced by [[JR West]]). Since 2014, Shinkansen trains run regularly at speeds up to {{convert|320|km/h|mph|round=5|abbr=on}} on the [[Tōhoku Shinkansen]]; only the [[Shanghai maglev train]], [[China Railway High-speed]] networks, and the Indonesian [[High-speed rail in Indonesia|Jakarta-Bandung High-speed]] railway have commercial services that operate faster.<ref>{{cite web |date=18 May 2016 |title=The 10 fastest trains in the world |url=https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-05-18/the-10-fastest-trains-in-the-world |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220623192616/https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-05-18/the-10-fastest-trains-in-the-world |archive-date=23 June 2022 |access-date=8 December 2019 |publisher=cntraveler.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=11 October 2023 |title=雅万高铁助力印尼民众加速奔向美好生活 |trans-title=Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway helps Indonesian people accelerate towards a better life |url=https://www.gov.cn/yaowen/liebiao/202310/content_6908475.htm |website=gov.cn |language=zh |access-date=27 January 2024 }}</ref>{{Update inline|date=January 2024|reason=Extensions in Kyushu and Hokuriku Shinkansen also need to be mentioned.}}

Since 1970, development has also been underway for the [[Chūō Shinkansen]], a planned [[maglev]] line from Tokyo to Osaka. On 21 April 2015, a seven-car [[L0 series]] maglev trainset, planned to be used on the line, set a [[Land speed record for railed vehicles|world speed record]] of {{convert|603|km/h|mph|0|abbr=on}}.<ref name="guardian20150421" /> The line is expected to operate at {{convert|500|km/h|mph|abbr=on|round=5}}, with the estimated travel time between Tokyo and Osaka taking 67 minutes. Construction commenced in 2011 and was originally scheduled to open in 2027, though it has since been delayed to at least 2034.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |title=Japan railway firm pushes back maglev plan, possibly to 2034 or later |url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/03/bd9e1d3aec6a-urgent-japan-rail-operator-gives-up-plan-to-launch-maglev-train-in-2027.html |website=Kyodo News+ |access-date=30 December 2024 }}</ref>