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When you think of Japan, what images spring to mind? Cherry blossoms and sushi, samurais and shoguns, and, bringing things a little more up to date, the world-renowned shinkansen bullet trains. These sleek high-speed trains are as much a symbol of modern Japan as are Sony's high-tech gadgets. And with a network connecting most of the country's major cities, a ride on the shinkansen is an experience that no visitor to Japan should miss.

How did it all begin?
Japan inaugurated its first bullet train line in 1964, in time for the opening of the Olympic Games in Tokyo. This line, running from Tokyo to Osaka, was named Tokaido Shinkansen, and was a remarkable feat for a country still recovering from the severe devastation of WW II. It showed the world a Japan as it wanted to be seen—a country of high-tech and modernity.

The word shinkansen simply means "new main line" and refers to the fact that the train line was built completely from scratch. Indeed, the use of a different gauge on the shinkansen prevented any use of the existing rail network. On opening it was immediately hailed as a triumph as it shortened the journey time between Tokyo and Osaka from an exhausting ten hours to a mere three hours.

The name of this first line, Tokaido (literally "east sea road"), refers to the old post road that for hundreds of years connected Japan's two centers of power: Edo (renamed Tokyo, the "Eastern Capital", only in 1868), the seat of the Shogun, and Kyoto (literally the "capital of capitals") in the west, the country's historic center and seat of the Emperor. Japan's most important trade route, the Tokaido highway consisted of 53 rest stops, or "stations", a number of which have today developed into major cities with their own shinkansen stations. The stops along the Tokaido are famously depicted in Japanese wood block prints (ukiyo-e) which vividly illustrate the plight of travelers at a time when the use of the wheel was forbidden and it took two weeks to travel the distance that the shinkansen now covers in a few hours.

A train of superlatives

In the four decades since the first line was opened, the high-speed shinkansen system has continuously evolved and now reaches as far as Akita (to the north of Japan's main island, Honshu) and Fukuoka (a metropolis on Kyushu, Japan's southern island), creating a network of several thousand kilometers.

Today the shinkansen forms the backbone of Japan's highly efficient rail transportation system. All trains start and finish at Tokyo's main station, the shinkansen hub and one of the busiest stations in the world with more than a million people passing through every day.

At peak times, such as during the holiday seasons, trains can become extraordinarily crowded, with usage rates of 200% (meaning that up to 100 people can be standing, in addition to seated passengers, in each carriage). Trains travel at speeds of up to 300 km/h (approx 187 mph) and the network has never suffered a serious accident.

Shinkansen punctuality is legendary: the average lateness per train on the Tokaido Shinkansen in 1999 was just 24 seconds! Another curiosity: all seats in the carriages can easily be rotated by passengers to either face the direction of travel or to form bays of four or six seats.

One of the latest additions to the network is the new line to Nagano in the Japan Alps, built to allow easy access from Tokyo to the site of the Winter Olympics of 1998. But Japan's plans for the shinkansen do not stop here.

What does the future hold?

Work continues to expand the shinkansen both to the north and to the south. On Kyushu, construction has started on the extension of the line to Kagoshima at the southern tip of Japan, while plans are being finalized for the network to reach Sapporo on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. This new leg will lead through the Seikan Undersea Tunnel, opened in 1988, which links Hokkaido to the mainland. At a length of 53.9 km (approx. 33 miles), 23.3 km (approx. 14.5 miles) of which are under the sea, the tunnel is one of the longest in the world. When this line is completed, passengers will be able to travel almost the full length of Japan by shinkansen—a distance of approx. 2000 kilometers (1250 miles).

Another work in progress is the futuristic Maglev project, harnessing technology to create a magnetic levitating train. This system will enable travel at speeds of up to an amazing 500 km/h (approx. 312 mph). Connecting Tokyo to Osaka in about one hour, this new train will make it possible to live in Osaka and commute daily to Tokyo for work!

A world-wide trend

Japan's shinkansen has helped the country to establish its reputation as a leading technological nation and as one of the world's leaders in high-speed rail systems alongside France's TGV and Germany's InterCityExpress. With the upcoming launch of the first high-speed train service in the US, the Acela Express service between Boston and Washington, and further high-speed trains on the planning board in countries such as Korea and China, it's a subject that is sure to draw plenty more attention in the future.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

• Japan's Asahi Newspaper provides a timetable of the shinkansen in English.
• All you could ever want to know about the shinkansen

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