Editing Shinkansen (section)

===Annual===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right"
|+  Annual ridership figures for selected years (in millions of passengers)<ref>{{cite web |title=国土交通省鉄道輸送統計年報（平成19年度） |trans-title=Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Railway Transportation Statistics Annual Report (2007) |url=http://www.mlit.go.jp/k-toukei/10/10a0excel.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514103232/http://www.mlit.go.jp/k-toukei/10/10a0excel.html |archive-date=14 May 2011 |access-date=19 December 2010 |language=ja}}</ref>
|-
! !! Tokaido !! Tohoku !! San'yō !! Joetsu !! Nagano (Hokuriku) !! Kyushu !! Hokkaido !! Sum* !! Total<br />(excl. transfers)
|-
! [[Fiscal year#Japan|FY]]2007
| 151.32
| 84.83
| 64.43
| 38.29
| 10.13
| 4.18
| -
| '''353.18'''
| '''315.77'''
|-
! FY2015
| 162.97
| 90.45
| 72.06
| 42.96
| 31.84
| 13.65
| **0.10
| '''414.03'''
| '''365.71'''
|-
! FY2016
| 167.72
| 91.09
| 72.53
| 43.06
| 30.75
| 13.27
| 2.11
| '''420.53'''
| 
|-
! FY2017
|170.09
|91.98
|74.46
|43.80
|31.03
|14.24
|2.19
| '''427.78'''
|
|-
! FY2018
|174.11
|93.44
|75.92
|44.53
|31.76
|14.6
|1.64
| '''436.00'''
|-
! FY2023<ref>{{cite web |title=鉄道輸送統計調査 年度次 2023年度 {{!}} ファイル {{!}} 統計データを探す |url=https://www.e-stat.go.jp/stat-search/files?page=1&layout=datalist&toukei=00600350&kikan=00600&tstat=000001011026&cycle=8&year=20231&month=0&result_back=1&result_page=1&tclass1val=0 |website=政府統計の総合窓口 |access-date=25 March 2025 |language=ja}}</ref>
|160.71
|81.55
|70.30
|39.78
|30.31
|16.09
|1.40
|
|}

<nowiki/>* The sum of the ridership of individual lines does not equal the ridership of the system because a single rider may be counted multiple times when using multiple lines, to get proper ridership figures for a system, in the above case, is only counted once.

<nowiki/>** Only refers to 6 days of operation: 26 March 2016 (opening date) to 31 March 2016 (end of FY2015).

Until 2011, Japan's high-speed rail system had the highest annual patronage of any system worldwide, when China's HSR network's patronage reached 1.7 billion and became the world's highest.<ref name="fc2web">{{cite web |title=KTX vs 新幹線 徹底比較 |url=http://whhh.fc2web.com/ktx/hikaku.html |access-date=10 August 2013 |publisher=Whhh.fc2web.com |archive-date=9 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009122921/http://whhh.fc2web.com/ktx/hikaku.html }}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=July 2022}}<ref>{{cite web |title=2017年中国铁路投资8010亿元 投产新线3038公里-中新网 |trans-title=In 2017, China Railway invested 801 billion yuan to put into operation 3,038 kilometers of new lines |url=http://www.chinanews.com/cj/2018/01-02/8414612.shtml |access-date=12 January 2018 |website=Chinanews |language=zh}}</ref>