48 Fun Facts About Shinkansen

Known abroad as the bullet train, what does Shinkansen literally mean?

New main line is the literal reading; the English nickname instead translates dangan ressha, a label coined for a high-speed scheme planned back in 1939.

The first Shinkansen line opened in October 1964, days before which event?

The Tokyo Summer Olympics opened nine days after the first trains ran, yet the line was not begun for them: ground was broken a month before Tokyo was even chosen as host.

Bullet trains from Tokyo bypass the old Osaka Station; which purpose-built station do they use instead?

Shin-Osaka was built about 3 km north of the old station because land in the crowded centre was short and the site let the line carry straight on westward later.

Shinkansen cleaning crews at Tokyo Station turn a train around in about seven minutes, then do what on the platform?

Bow to waiting passengers: the crew lines up and bows in unison to show the train is ready, a routine that visiting reporters christened the seven-minute miracle.

The engineer who shaped the first bullet train's rounded nose had spent World War II designing what?

Warplanes: Tadanao Miki was a former aircraft engineer, and colleague Tadashi Matsudaira used what he knew about steadying fighter wings to stop the new train swaying at speed.

If the overhead power fails, how can the N700S bullet train, unlike any Shinkansen before it, still move?

On lithium-ion batteries: introduced in 2020, it was the first high-speed train able to crawl along on stored power, far enough to clear a tunnel or bridge so passengers can get out safely.

Railway president Shinji Sogo, champion of the first Shinkansen, resigned in 1963 over what?

Its soaring cost: the budget nearly doubled to 380 billion yen, and when the first train pulled out a year later the man who had championed the line was not on the platform.

After the first bullet train, chief engineer Hideo Shima moved on in 1969 to lead Japan's work on which faster machines?

Space rockets: Shima ran Japan's National Space Development Agency until 1977, having left the railway a year before the bullet train he designed carried its first passengers.

Which lender's US$80 million loan in 1961 helped fund the first Shinkansen line?

World Bank: finance minister Eisaku Sato advised railway chief Shinji Sogo to seek the loan partly because it bound the government to finish the line even if the cabinet changed.

What is an ekiben, a familiar part of Shinkansen travel?

A boxed meal sold at stations: by the usual telling the first was just rice balls wrapped in bamboo, sold at Utsunomiya in 1885; today's boxes show off each region's specialities.

The Sujahta ice cream long sold from Shinkansen snack trolleys is famous among passengers for being what?

Too hard to eat at first: kept on dry ice and made with little air, it defeats the plastic spoon, so the advice is to wait ten minutes.

Shinkansen trains reverse at each terminus, so why does nobody ride backwards?

Every seat row swivels: crews spin them all to face forward during the turnaround, and a group can turn a row themselves to sit face to face.

Which is the fastest service category on the Tokaido Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka?

Nozomi trains stop only at major stations and reach Osaka in about two and a half hours; they are among the few JR trains that Japan Rail Pass holders must pay extra to ride.

Which limited-stop service cut the Tokyo-Osaka run to four hours when the line opened in 1964?

Hikari trains called only at Nagoya and Kyoto; a year later the run was down to three hours ten minutes, short enough for a business trip to Osaka and back in a single day.

In 2023 a chartered bullet-train carriage travelling at full speed between Tokyo and Nagoya staged which combat sport?

Pro wrestling: Minoru Suzuki and Sanshiro Takagi brawled down the aisle without damaging the train, and all 75 seats sold out in half an hour.

The Genbi Shinkansen, which ran in Niigata from 2016 to 2020, was billed as the world's fastest what?

Art museum: each carriage was given over to a different contemporary artist, and one held a floral artwork designed to sway with the train's own motion.

What lifts Japan's L0 train clear of its track, letting it set a 603 km/h rail speed record in 2015?

Superconducting magnets on the train react with coils in the guideway to lift and drive it; with no wheels on rails, the line it was built for is designed for 505 km/h.

To run straighter than the coastal route, the planned Chuo Shinkansen is being bored under which mountains?

Japanese Alps: about nine-tenths of the 286 km to Nagoya will be underground, because a short, straight route mattered more to the railway than serving towns along the way.

Why do modern Shinkansen trains have such long, elaborately streamlined noses?

To reduce tunnel boom: a blunt nose rams air down a narrow bore like a piston, and the pressure wave bursts out of the far end with a bang that would breach Japan's strict noise limits.

The nose of the 500 series was modelled on the beak of which bird?

Kingfisher: engineer and keen birdwatcher Eiji Nakatsu noticed that it plunges from air into water with barely a splash, and computer tests then picked an almost identical shape as the best one.

To quieten the power collector on the 500 series' roof, engineers copied the serrated wing feathers of which bird?

Owl: wind-tunnel tests on a stuffed owl showed that comb-like feather edges break the air into tiny quiet vortices, so matching notches were added to the collector.

Which anime franchise got its own 500 series livery in 2015 to mark the San'yo line's 40th anniversary?

Neon Genesis Evangelion was marking its own 20th anniversary, and the team behind the anime designed the livery and the first two cars; in 2018 a Hello Kitty train took its place.

What is Doctor Yellow?

A track and wire inspection train: it checks the line at full speed on an unpublished timetable, so spotting one is said to bring luck; sensor-fitted passenger trains are now taking over its job.

The Toreiyu Tsubasa, a sightseeing bullet train styled after a hot-spring town, offered passengers what on board until 2022?

Foot baths: passengers could soak in warm water as Yamagata's scenery slid past, then move on to tatami-mat seating or a bar pouring the region's sake.

How late does the average Tokaido Shinkansen train run?

Under two minutes: JR Central's published average was 1.6 minutes per train in fiscal 2023 and under a minute in 2018, and those figures include delays caused by natural disasters.

How many passengers have died in Shinkansen derailments or collisions since the first line opened in 1964?

None: not one passenger has died in a crash since 1964. Deaths on board have come from other causes, such as a fire a passenger set on a Tokyo-Osaka train in 2015.

What caused the first derailment of a Shinkansen in passenger service, in October 2004?

The Chuetsu earthquake hit as the train ran near Nagaoka, ending 40 years without a derailment in service; even so, nobody aboard was hurt.

What warns Shinkansen trains to brake seconds before an earthquake's main shock arrives?

Its faint first tremors: seismometers catch the small, fast waves that reach the surface ahead of the damaging shaking and send an alarm, so trains are already slowing when the main shock hits.

Roughly how many seats does one Tokaido Shinkansen train have?

About 1,300: each 16-car set seats just over 1,300 people, and with well over 300 departures a day that is how one line carries more than 400,000 passengers daily.

Thanks to their extra width, most full-size Shinkansen cars seat ordinary-class passengers in which layout?

2+3: five seats across, where most trains elsewhere manage four; pay extra for a Green Car and the row shrinks to 2+2.

Which Hollywood star plays Ladybug, an unlucky assassin riding a Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto, in the 2022 film Bullet Train?

Brad Pitt: the film adapts a novel by Japan's Kotaro Isaka, in which rival killers aboard one train slowly realise their separate jobs are all connected.

France's TGV packs its motors into a power car at each end; where does a Shinkansen carry its motors?

Under the passenger cars: spreading the motors along the train means nearly every car earns fares, while a TGV's two power cars seat nobody.

What are the 'mini-Shinkansen' routes to Yamagata and Akita?

Conventional track regauged to standard: widening the rails let bullet trains run through from Tokyo without a change, but the old alignments hold them to ordinary-train speeds and the cars have to be narrower.

Which prime minister, later convicted of taking Lockheed bribes, proposed a nationwide Shinkansen network in his 1972 book?

Kakuei Tanaka: his 1972 book on remodelling the Japanese archipelago promised bullet trains and expressways to every region, aiming to narrow the gap between rural Japan and the big cities.

The original 1964 bullet train's rounded nose was nicknamed after which Japanese food?

A dumpling: 'dango nose' was the nickname for the blunt front end, and when the last of the type made its farewell run in December 2008, fans packed the stations along the way to see it off.

Where outside Japan is a 0 series lead car preserved, donated by JR West in 2001?

It was the first Shinkansen vehicle of any series preserved in a museum abroad.

Where outside Japan did a high-speed railway open in 2007 using trains based on the 700 series Shinkansen?

Taiwan: the contract first went to a German-French consortium, but a Japanese group later took it from them, making this the first place outside Japan to use Shinkansen technology.

Which 320 km/h bullet-train service from Tokyo to Aomori is named after the peregrine falcon?

Hayabusa: the word means peregrine falcon, and as far as Morioka some of these trains run coupled to a Komachi, which then peels off on its own for Akita.

What is the premium tier above Green Car on E5 series trains called?

Gran Class: on full-service trains it copies the airline first-class routine, with a dedicated attendant bringing a meal and drinks to the seat and handing out slippers and an eye mask.

Which undersea tunnel carries the Hokkaido Shinkansen from Honshu to Japan's northern island?

Seikan Tunnel: it was dug after a typhoon sank the Toya Maru ferry on the same crossing in 1954, drowning more than a thousand people.

Why must Hokkaido Shinkansen trains slow down inside their undersea tunnel?

It shares track with narrow-gauge freight: a third rail lets goods trains and bullet trains use the same tunnel, so the fast trains are held far below their usual 260 km/h.

Which city is the Hokkaido Shinkansen extension from Hakodate meant to reach?

Sapporo: Hokkaido's biggest city was due to get its bullet train by 2030, but the opening has since slipped to the late 2030s.

The Kyushu Shinkansen runs from Hakata to which southern city?

Kagoshima: the southern half opened first, in 2004, so for seven years its bullet trains ran cut off from the rest of the network until the northern half reached Hakata.

Which mountain does the Tokaido Shinkansen skirt at its southern foot before reaching the Shizuoka plain?

Mount Fuji: sit on the right-hand side heading west from Tokyo and the mountain fills the window about 40 minutes out, cloud permitting.

What is the daily overnight closure of the Tokaido Shinkansen used for?

Track and overhead-line maintenance: planners meant to run freight trains through the night, but the idea was dropped and the small hours went to the repair crews instead.

Which city, home to Kenrokuen garden, did the Hokuriku Shinkansen bring within two and a half hours of Tokyo in 2015?

Kanazawa: the extension cut the trip from Tokyo from about four hours to two and a half, and retired the line's old popular name, the Nagano Shinkansen.

What did engineers install to cope with winter weather around Maibara on the Tokaido line?

Water sprinklers to disperse snow: keeping the snow wet stops passing trains whipping it up to freeze under the cars, where it could later drop off as ice and scatter the track ballast.

In 2017 Japan's prime minister helped launch which country's first bullet-train project, funded mostly by a low-interest Japanese loan?

India: Shinzo Abe and Narendra Modi laid the first stone of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad line, which is meant to cut a rail trip that took seven or eight hours in 2017 to under three.