History of rail transport in Japan
Early history
The history of rail transport in Japan began at the late Edo period, when foreigners such as Yevfimy Putyatin or Matthew Calbraith Perry showed model railroads to Japanese. The knowledge of rail transport existed before that, through Dutch traders in Dejima, Nagasaki, but the impact of visual model was bigger. Saga Domain, a han (feudal countries/provinces) in Kyūshū, even planned to build a line by themselves. Other bodies such as Satsuma Domain or Tokugawa shogunate also planned to build railways. United Kingdom also demonstrated running a steam locomotive in Nagasaki. But the real line in service did not come into reality before the Meiji Restoration.
In 1869, or Meiji 2 in Japanese year name, the new government of Japan decided to build a railway. On September 12, 1872, the first railway, between Shimbashi (which was at the current Shiodome) and Yokohama (the current Sakuragichō) opened. (The date is in Tenpō calendar used at the time; in Gregorian calendar used today, it was October 14.) At the time, Japan could not develop railway by themselves, so they relied United Kingdom to financially and technically aid the development. To build the line, Japanese chose narrow rail gauge of Template:3ft6in, as oppossed to standard gauge of Template:4ft8in. The reason behind the decision is not clearly known, but the decision still affects Japanese railway lines today, as the narrow gauge became the de facto standard.
Some politicians, such as Inoue Masaru, stated all the railway lines should be nationalized. However, the government was financially strained after the Satsuma Rebellion, making the expansion of the railway network terribly slow. Politicians then wanted to allow private companies to build railways. Consequently, Japan Railway (日本鉄道, Nippon Tetsudō), a half-public, half-private company was founded. Japan Railway expanded railway lines fairly quickly, completing the line between Ueno and Aomori (the current Tōhoku Main Line) in 1891. With the success of Japan Railway, similar companies were also founded. Sanyō Railway (山陽鉄道, San'yō Tetsudō), Kyūshū Railway (九州鉄道, Kyūshū Tetsudō), Hokkaidō Colliery Railway (北海道炭砿鉄道, Hokkaidō Tankō Tetsudō), Kansai Railway (関西鉄道, Kansai Tetsudō) and Japan Railway were called "Major five private railways" at the time. At the same time, the national railway did open its railway lines, including the current Tōkaidō Main Line in 1889, but most of its lines were subsidiary to major private lines.
Rail transport was introduced not only for inter-city, but also for intra-city transportation. The first horsecar line in Japan was built in Tokyo, 1882. However, an electric car without a horse, called tram, quickly replaced it. The first tram in Japan was Kyōto Electric Railway, opened in 1895.
Also, some operators began to use EMUs, rather than locomotives, for inter-city transportation. Many of such railway companies, modeled after interurbans in United States, are the origins of the current private railway operators.
Pre-war development
Private companies were the major players in the early stages. However, after having the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, the government planned to directly control the unified railway network from a strategic standpoint. In 1906, Railway Nationalization Act was promulgated, nationalizing many trunk railway lines. From this point, the national railway started to play the major role of Japanese railway network.
However, having used its money for nationalizing, the government didn't have enough money to further expand the network to country side. They issued Light Railway Act, encouraging smaller private operators to build light railways (軽便鉄道, keiben tetsudō).
Larger private railway operators, on the other hand, further developed their business modeled after interurbans. Hanshin Express Electric Railway (the current Hankyu Railway) built its own department store connected to its terminus; the management model still used today. Unlike interurban operators in United States that suffered from motorization as early as 1910s, Japanese counterparts didn't experience the phenomenon as late as 1960s, making them much more powerful, still surviving today.
As an intra-city rapid transit, the first subway in the East (the current Tōkyō Metro Ginza Line) opened in 1927. The first trolleybus in the nation appeared in 1928.
As the territories of Japanese Empire at the time, railways in Korea, Taiwan, and Sakhalin were built by Japanese as well. In Manchukuo, a nation in the current Northeast China virtually controlled by Japanese, South Manchuria Railway operated its railway network.
Wartime situation
After the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War (World War II), the nation, including its railways, went under the militaristic control. In 1938, the government decided to unify private railways per regional blocks, making larger companies such as Tōkyō Kyūkō Electric Railway (called Great Tōkyū at the time) or Kinki Nippon Railway (the current Kintetsu). From 1943, the national railway reduced its (civilian) passenger service, putting priority for military transportation. In 1944, it abolished all the limited express trains, first class cars, dining cars, and sleeping cars.
The war, especially strategic bombings by Unites States, damaged Japanese railways heavily. The worst case was that in Okinawa, which completely lost its rail transport until the opening of Yui Rail in 2003. In most cases, however, railways at least resumed their operations fairly quickly. Some lines of the national railway resumed right after the day of Tōkyō bombing. Sanyō Main Line resumed two days after the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, while Hiroshima Electric Railway resumed three days after.
Still, it took a little more time for Japanese railways to fully recover from the war. Right after the Japanese defeat, due to the lack of materials, facilities were not properly maintained. The lack of materials also meant that people had to buy wholesale all the time, which then meant the rapid increase of railway passengers. However, train services were even more reduced from the wartime, due to the lack of coal. The situation resulted overcrowded trains with a lot of rail accidents. On the other hand, the transport related to U.S. General HQ (GHQ) were put under the first priority, with a lot of "Allies personnel only" trains being operated.
Post-war recovery and development
In 1949, under the directive of the GHQ, the national railway, which had been directly operated by the Ministry of Transportation, was reorganized as Japanese National Railways (JNR), a public company.
From 1950s, the electrification of trunk lines began to progress. The electrification of Tōkaidō Main Line completed in 1956, Sanyō Main Line in 1964, and Tōhoku Main Line in 1968. In 1954, the government decided to abolish steam locomotives, and all of them disappeared in 1976. It was also around this time that many trains shifted from push-pull system by locomotives to multiple unit system by EMUs or DMUs. The New Performance Trains (新性能電車, Shin-seinō Densha), such as EMU 101 developed in 1957, symbolizes the phenomenon.
1960s saw the great improvement of Japanese economy, including the railway. Tōkaidō Shinkansen, the first modern high-speed rail of the world, opened in 1964. Many limited express trains and overnight trains also started to run across the nation, making the golden age of Japanese railways.
At the same time, however, Japan finally had its motorization, and tram networks in cities were treated as impediments of vehicles. They quickly disappeared, substituted by rapidly built subway networks. The first monorail in the country, Tokyo Monorail, also opened in 1964.
With the uprising economy, the number of commuters using railways became extremely many, especially in Greater Tōkyō Area. JNR tried to increase its capacity by the Five Directions of Commuting Campaign (通勤五方面作戦, Tsūkin Go-hōmen Sakusen); the campaign to redevelop major five lines in the area by making them quadruple track lines. This improved the network tremendously, but at the same time, the huge cost of the reconstruction became the debt of JNR.
The cost of the campaign, as well as that of the construction of Shinkansen and other railway networks, increased the debt. Also, the confrontation between the trade union and the company was serious, resulting many strike actions. To resolve the situation, JNR was separated and privatized in 1987, becoming Japan Railways (JR) group.
The current situation
After the privatization, JR companies tried to renovate their services, some of them being successful. At the same time, many local lines with lower riderships have closed. Also, the fierce competition between railway operators put a great emphasis on efficiency, possibly more so than safety. Some thinks Amagasaki rail crash in 2005, which killed more than 100 passengers, is the result of such a trend.
Rail transport in Japan still does reserve its fame with efficiency, capacity, punctuality, and technology. Port Liner, one of the first AGT of the world, opened in 1981. JR-Maglev, a tested maglev train system, reached its world record speed of 581 km/h in 2003, while much slower Linimo, debuted in 2005, is the first maglev metro of the world.
The development of Japan in the 20th century is analogous to that of its rail transport. Throughout the times, railway was the most important means of transportation in the country, and it still is in larger cities. As many of Japanese suburban cities were developed by railway operators, its unchallenged importance is something unique among the world.
See also
- Rail transportation in Okinawa; for the history of rail transport in the region.
- Rail transport in Japan
- History of rail transport
- History of rail transport by country
