Editing Shinkansen (section)

=== 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In the 1950s, the Japanese national attitude was that as was happening in the United States, railways would soon be outdated and replaced by air travel and highways.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>