Rail transport in Japan

Rail transport in Japan is a major means of passenger transport, especially for mass and high-speed travel between major cities and for commuter transport in urban areas. It is used relatively little for freight transport, accounting for just 0.84% of goods movement. The privatised network is highly efficient, requiring few subsidies and running extremely punctually.

Overview
Rail transport services in Japan are provided by more than 100 private companies, including

Six Japan Railways Group (JR) regional companies (state owned until 1987) which provide passenger services to most parts of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu;
The nationwide JR freight company; and
16 major regional companies which provide railway services as part of their corporate operations. There are also dozens of smaller local private railways.
Many of the private rail companies rank among the top corporations in the country. Railways were built by private corporations developing integrated communities along the railway lines, allowing them to achieve profitability by diversifying into real estate, retail, and numerous other businesses. Regional governments, and companies funded jointly by regional governments and private companies, also provide rail service.

There are 27,268 km of rail crisscrossing the country. JR (a group of companies formed after privatization of JNR) controlled 20,135 km of these lines as of March 31, 1996, with the remaining 7,133 km in the hands of private enterprise local railway companies. Japan’s railways carried 7.289 billion passengers (260 billion passenger-kilometres) in the year 2013-14. In comparison, Germany has over 40,000 km of railways, but carries only 2.2 billion passengers per year. Because of the massive use of its railway system, Japan is home to 46 of the world’s 50 busiest stations.

The major usage is of urban and intercity lines, and around the time of the privatisation of JNR, many unprofitable local and rural lines were closed, especially in Hokkaido and Kyushu. However, with patronage on many non-urban local lines continuing to decline due to factors such as rising levels of car ownership and declining rural populations, further closures are planned. For example, On 16 October 2015, JR West announced that it was considering closing the 108 km Sanko Line due to poor patronage, and was in discussion with the two prefectures served by the line, Shimane and Hiroshima, as well as other municipalities served, concerning future plans. In fiscal 2014, the line carried an average of 50 passengers per km per day, compared to 458 per km per day in 1987. On 29 September 2016, JR West announced that the entire line will close on 31 March 2018.

On 19 November 2016, JR Hokkaido’s President announced plans to further rationalise its network by up to 1,237 km, or ~50% of the current network, including closure of the remaining section of the Rumoi Main Line (the Rumoi – Mashike section closed on 4 December 2016), the Shin-Yubari – Yubari section of the Sekisho Line, the non-electrified section of the Sassho Line and the Nemuro Line between Furano and Kami-Ochiai Junction. Other lines including the Sekihoku Main Line, Senmo Main Line, the Nayoro – Wakkanai section of the Soya Line and Kushiro – Nemuro section of the Nemuro Line are proposed for conversion to Third Sector operation, but if local governments are not agreeable, such sections will also face closure.

Fukuoka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya, Osaka, Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo and Yokohama have subway systems. However, unlike Europe, the vast majority of passenger traffic is on suburban commuter trains that criss-cross metropolitan areas. In addition, many cities have streetcar and monorail networks.

Japan pioneered the high-speed shinkansen or “bullet train”, which now links Japan’s largest cities at speeds of up to 320 km/h (200 mph). However, other trains running on the conventional line or “zairaisen” remain relatively slow, operating at fastest 160 km/h and mostly under 130 km/h.

Japan’s railways carried 31 million tons (21 billion tonne-kilometres) of goods in 2013-14. The share of railways in the national logistics is as small as 6.2% (2010), by far the lowest in the G8.

Classifications of rail transport in Japan

Types of operators

JR
The Japan Railways Group, more commonly known as JR Group, is a group of successors of the government-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR). The JR Group lies at the heart of Japan’s railway network, operating almost all intercity rail services and a large proportion of commuter rail services.

The six passenger operating companies of the JR Group are separated by region, but many operate long-distance train services beyond their regional boundaries. The six companies are: Hokkaido Railway Company, East Japan Railway Company, Central Japan Railway Company, West Japan Railway Company, Shikoku Railway Company, and Kyushu Railway Company.

Freight service belongs to Japan Freight Railway Company or JR Freight which operates all freight network previously owned by JNR.

Major private railways
Japan also features multiple competing private railway systems. In post-war Japan, the Japanese government encouraged private corporations to develop their own mass transit systems in order to quickly rebuild the country’s urban transport networks.

Private rail lines were encouraged to compete with each other as well as the national rail lines with the government’s role limited to regulation of fares. In exchange for developing rail lines, private corporations were given business opportunities to diversify their operations and develop the real estate surrounding their railway networks.

By allowing private corporations to control transit oriented developments as well as railway lines, planned communities were facilitated allowing private railway operators to establish a vertically integrated business of developing residential, business, industrial and retail land and the commuting methods used by the populace to travel between such areas.

As such, through diversification of their business, the majority of the private railways in Japan are financially independent and their railway operations are usually profitable, in sharp contrast to most transit networks in other countries.

The following 16 companies are classified as the major private railways and are operating 2,870.1 kilometers of railways. In a one-year period from April 2009, a total of 9.46 billion passengers (118 billion passenger kilometers) traveled on these major railways.

Tobu Railway
Seibu Railway
Keisei Electric Railway
Keio Corporation
Odakyu Electric Railway
Tokyu Corporation
Keikyu Corporation
Tokyo Metro
Sagami Railway
Nagoya Railroad
Kintetsu Railway
Nankai Electric Railway
Keihan Electric Railway
Hankyu Corporation
Hanshin Electric Railway
Nishi-Nippon Railroad
Other railways

Other railway operators include
City governments,
“Third sector” companies funded jointly by regional governments and private companies, and
Other minor private railway companies.

Railway and tram
In the legal sense, there are two types (with several subcategories) of rail transportation systems in Japan: railway (鉄道 tetsudō) and tramway (軌道 kidō). Every public rail transportation system under government regulation in Japan is classified either as railway or tramway. In principle, tramways can have sections shared with road traffic while railways cannot, but the choice may seem rather arbitrary in certain cases. For example, Osaka Metro is a tram system while subways in other cities are railways.

Railways and trams are respectively regulated by the Railway Business Act (鉄道事業法 Tetsudō Jigyō Hō, Act No. 92 of 1986) and the Tram Act (軌道法 Kidō Hō, Act No. 76 of 1921).

Categories of railway
Under the Railway Business Act, operations of “railways” (in the legal meaning) are divided into three categories: Category 1, Category 2 and Category 3. They are defined by the Act as follows:

Category 1 Railway Business (第一種鉄道事業 Dai-isshu Tetsudō Jigyō): the business of transportation of passengers or freight by railway (except tramways) other than a Category 2 Railway Business operator.
Category 2 Railway Business (第二種鉄道事業 Dai-nishu Tetsudō Jigyō): the business of the transportation of passengers or freight using railway tracks other than those constructed by the operator of the business (including the railway tracks constructed by others which were assigned to the operator) to meet the needs of others.
Category 3 Railway Business (第三種鉄道事業 Dai-sanshu Tetsudō Jigyō): the business of constructing railway tracks for the purpose of assigning them to a Category 1 Railway Business operator and the business of constructing railway tracks to have a Category 2 Railway Business operator use them exclusively.
Most railway operations in Japan are Category 1. Examples of Category 2 railway businesses include most operations of the Japan Freight Railway Company (JR Freight) and the JR Tōzai Line operation of the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). Examples of Category 3 railway businesses include the Kōbe Rapid Transit Railway company and the government of Aomori Prefecture with regards to the Aoimori Railway.

Common features of Japanese railways

Gauge
The national railway network was started and has been expanded with the narrow 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge. Railways with broader gauge are limited to those built not intending to provide through freight and passenger transport with the existing national network. The shinkansen network uses standard gauge.

Electrification
Electrification systems used by the JR Group are 1,500 V DC and 20 kV AC for conventional lines, and 25 kV AC for Shinkansen. Electrification with 600 V DC and 750 V DC are also seen in private lines. Frequency of AC power supply is 50 Hz in eastern Japan and 60 Hz in western Japan.

Loading gauge
Japanese national network operated by Japan Railways Group employs narrow gauge 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) and has maximum width of 3,000 mm (9 ft 10 in) and maximum height of 4,100 mm (13 ft 5 in); however, a number JR lines were constructed as private railways prior to nationalisation in the early 20th century, and feature loading gauges smaller than the standard. These include the Chūō Main Line west of Takao, the Minobu Line, and the Yosan Main Line west of Kan’onji (3,900 mm (12 ft 10 in) height). Nevertheless, advances in pantograph technology have largely eliminated the need for separate rolling stock in these areas.

There are many private railway companies in Japan and the loading gauge is different for each company.

Tickets, fare and surcharges
Rail transport in Japan is usually for a fee. In principle a fare is pre-charged and a ticket is issued in exchange for a payment of fare. A ticket is inspected at a manned or automated gate in the station where a travel starts and is collected at the station where the travel ends.

A ticket required for a travel by railway is called a fare ticket (乗車券 jōshaken), the price of which is fare (運賃 unchin). The fare ticket is valid regardless of number of transfers. Long-distance travellers (usually longer than 101 km) are allowed unlimited number of stopovers (途中下車 tochū-gesha) along the route subject to the duration of the validity of the fare ticket. In addition, a ride on a specific train and/or coach may require a surcharge ticket (料金券 ryōkinken).

Except for very short railways and some tram systems with a flat fare, fare varies by distances or number of zones travelled. The pricing based on the time of travel (peak or off-peak) is not common in Japan. Children fare (小児運賃 shōni-unchin) for children between 6 and 12 is half of adult fare. Recent development in the fare collection system is the stored-value card systems shared by multiple operators in large cities, such as Suica and PiTaPa, by which passengers can avoid consultation with complicated fare tables and lineups for ticket machines before each train ride.

There are many types of surcharges. For example, in JR, surcharges include:

Express fee (急行料金 kyūkō ryōkin) for travel on an “express train”
Limited express fee (特急料金 tokkyū ryōkin) for travel on a reserved seat of a “limited express train”
Non-reserved limited express fee (自由席特急料金 jiyūseki tokkyū ryōkin) for travel on a non-reserved seat of a “limited express train”
Reserved seat fee (指定席料金 shiteiseki ryōkin) for travel on a reserved seat of trains except for a “limited express train”
Green fee (グリーン料金 gurīn ryōkin) for travel on a special coach called “Green Car”
Bed fee (寝台料金 shindai ryōkin) for travel on a sleeping car
An unusual feature of Japanese surcharges, compared with other train systems, is that they often require a separate ticket. Thus, if riding the shinkansen, for instance, rather than purchasing a single shinkansen ticket, one purchases two tickets: a fare ticket (乗車券) for the distance traveled, and an additional shinkansen ticket (新幹線特急券 shinkansen tokkyūken, shinkansen special express ticket) to allow one to ride the shinkansen for that distance, rather than ordinary trains. Since express trains are not separated by special gates from ordinary trains, express service requires manual inspection of tickets by a conductor, and express tickets can be purchased from the conductor. In short, the fare ticket allows access to the train platforms at entrance and exit, where it is inspected by the gate or attendant at the station, while the express ticket allows one to ride an express train over the interval and is inspected by a conductor on the train.

Types and names of trains
Suburban or intercity railway lines usually set several types of trains (列車種別 ressha shubetsu) with different stop patterns.

A train that stops at every station is called a local train (普通列車/各駅停車 futsū-ressha/kakueki-teisha). Only a fare ticket is required to ride local trains. Trains faster than local trains are classified as Rapid (快速 kaisoku), Express (急行 kyūkō), Limited Express (特急 tokkyū), etc. and may require surcharges depending on company policies. Limited Express is faster than Express. Railways with many types of trains use prefixes like “semi-“, “rapid-“, “section-“, or “commuter-“. For example, the Tōbu Isesaki Line has Local, Section Semi-Express, Semi-Express, Section Express, Express, Rapid, Section Rapid, and Limited Express.

Train operators usually name long distance trains (Kintetsu is a rare exception of this practice). The process of ticket reservation utilizes the train names instead of the train numbers. Train numbers are almost exclusively for professional use.

Subways and light rail transit
In addition to its extensive railway network, Japan has a large number of subway systems. The largest is the Tokyo subway, where the network in 1989 consisted of 211 kilometers of track serving 205 stations. Two subway systems serve the capital: one run by the Tokyo Metro (named Teito Rapid Transit Authority until 2004), with nine lines (the oldest, Ginza line was built in 1927), and the other operated by the Tokyo metropolitan government’s Transportation Bureau (Toei), with four lines. Outlying and suburban areas are served by seven private railway companies, whose lines intersect at major stations with the subway system. More than sixty additional kilometers of subway were under construction in 1990 by the two companies.

There are a number of other metro systems in other Japanese cities, including the Fukuoka City Subway, Kobe Municipal Subway, Kyoto Municipal Subway, Osaka Metro, Nagoya Subway, Sapporo Subway, Sendai Subway and Yokohama Subway.

While metro systems in Japanese cities are usually operated by the city government and therefore tend to limit their networks within the city border, there are many cases of through services using subway trains on suburban railway lines and vice versa. One of the reasons for this situation was the sharp increase of ridership on the railways in the rapid growth of the postwar economy that could not be handled by small original railway terminals in the city center.

Automated guideway transit (rubber-tired motor cars running on concrete guideways) has also developed in Japan. Cities with such intermediate capacity transit systems include Hiroshima, Kobe, Osaka, Saitama and Tokyo.

Some cities operate streetcar systems, including Hiroshima, Matsuyama, Nagasaki, Tokyo (one line only) and Toyohashi. All of these cities are also well served by public and private railroads; also, there are private tramways not included above.

Freight transport
Along with the privatization of the National Railway Split, freight transport was left to Japan freight railway (JR freight). Although the rail cargo had once played the cornerstone of freight transportation in Japan, the freight traffic volume has drastically decreased due to the expansion of the expressway network, the enhancement of the delivery service, etc. since the Showa 40 ‘s. In the late national railway of the Showa 50’ s, In order to rationalize management, cargo trains and facilities were greatly arranged and taken over by JR cargo.

Transportation amount
Although the overall trend showed an upward trend until the 1950s, since the Showa 40s, changes in population distribution (concentration in large cities) due to changes in the industrial structure during the period of high economic growth and diffusion of private cars As the transportation volume of local small and medium private railways has been decreasing, many small and medium-sized private railways have become abolished. Since the latter half of the Showa 40 ‘s (1970’ s), the reduction of air fares, road construction such as highway construction by utilizing the road specific financing system etc, the increase in the number of cars and aircraft due to the lower price of oil after the oil shock, Demand reduction for long-distance transportation by railroads has advanced.

Speed
In the Shinkansen designed and constructed for special high-speed driving, the maximum speed of 300 km / h in the Nishi-Meishi west of the Sanyo Shinkansen “Nozomi”, between Utsunomiya and Morioka of the Tohoku Shinkansen “Hayabusa”, the highest speed of 320 km / h Driving is done.Meanwhile, the maximum speed of the conventional line is a certain extent to 160 km / h that can run a very small part, even the main trunk line remains only 120 – 130 km / h.

Comparison between Japanese railway and railway in countries other than Japan

High punctuality and vulnerable transport infrastructure
The railway in Japan is said to be extremely punctual compared to railways in countries other than Japan.

Railway travel writer Miyawaki Shunzo cited the high number of trains and the accuracy of time as Japanese railroads are proud of the world. When railway officials outside Japan actually arrived and got on the Shinkansen, let each person have a pocket watch and measure the arrival time of the station, then watch it arrive no different regardless of “crazy” There is also an anecdote that he testifies that there is. In addition to Japan, the delay of about 5 – 15 minutes is regarded as a fixed time (whether it is a high – speed railway), but in Japan it can be regarded as a delay of about 15 – 30 seconds, so Japanese It is even introduced to each book product as a source of the feeling of.

Supporting the accuracy of railway
In Japan, where the population is densely populated, there is a tendency that the number of trains inevitably tends to be inevitably larger than in countries, but even if a slight time difference affects other trains, it is inevitable It is necessary to keep pace with time.

It was impossible to keep pace with no effort and effort. Kaoru Yuuki called “God of driving”, various stakeholders struggled to preserve the punctuality of the railway, the current punctuality is kept. Recently, some railroad companies are increasing the time to spare time by delaying the time required by competing transportation measures to some extent by reviewing the diamonds in various places, even if it is delayed.

Overcrowded passenger transport

High passenger transport density
The amount of passenger traffic in Japan’s railroad is high level, and the Tokaido Shinkansen as a railroad that connects main lines of the Tokyo area, the Kansai area as urban railways and the cities in particular has a high transportation density even in the world railroads. The Tokaido Shinkansen ‘s Tokyo – Shin Osaka runs at the frequency of commuting trains, and in the morning and evening there are as many as 10 trains per hour, but the railway connecting mid- and long-distance cities with this transportation frequency and frequency, There are no other examples in the world at present.

In the Tokyo area, passengers of 3,000 – 4,000 people are transported in a 10-car train route on the Yamanote line, the central high-speed line and so on, reaching the number of passengers of about 100,000 people / hour on a double track when rushing, this is Moscow It is the transport density next to the 138 thousand people / hour of the subway. 6 door cars that accommodate all the chairs when crowded are designs unlike any other country, and harsh commuting rush is often introduced in other countries. Efficiently from the viewpoint of energy consumption and land use, the economic activity of the metropolitan area, which is the world’s largest metropolitan area, can not be established without such a railway, but on the other hand, the comfort of people’s living and welfare There is a problem from the viewpoint. After the period of high economic growth, strengthening of transportation capacity to relieve congestion, such as double tracking typified by the national railway commuting five directions and new line opening of the subway underground was energetically tackled, but the concentration of Tokyo’s population The situation is far from being resolved in the course of progress, further infrastructure enhancement has been stagnant due to the privatization of the JNR and the Tanzan, and we have not seen drastic improvement until now. Furthermore, as a result of promoting the reduction of the number of cars and the number of cars formed by rationalization of operators suffering from the deficit of the railway business, packing transportation at the time of rush has been seen in rural areas in recent years.

High transit personnel
In connection with the above high transport density, Japan’s railroad carries about 23 billion people, the world’s largest. Secondly, the country with many passenger transport personnel is India, Indian railway transportation staff is about 5 billion people, this figure is less than JR East Japan.
High passenger share

The share of passenger transport in Japan’s railway has been maintained at about 30% even after it has declined greatly through the spread of automobiles in the 1950s and 1940s (motorization), the highest in comparison with the world countries It is level. As mentioned earlier, railways and bullet trains in the Tokyo area and the Osaka area, in particular, are relatively more convenient than other transportation facilities, so they are used and popularized by people on a daily basis. However, in rural areas other than the Tokyo area and the Osaka area, the convenience of the car is higher, and in many cases the railway is not used much. In addition, the share of freight transportation is low at just under 5%.

Station with many passengers
As stated above, stations with the highest number of passengers in the world are associated with high transportation personnel, transportation density, passenger market share, etc. Shinjuku station in Japan (about 1.5 million people a day, about 3.5 million including private railroads only on JR East alone). In addition, Shibuya station, Ikebukuro station, Umeda station, Osaka station, Yokohama station and Japanese station are continued in second place below the world.

Strength of the private sector and weakness of public support
In Japan, the role of private rail is particularly important for railways in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka. In addition, JR after division / privatization, JR East, JR Tokai and JR West continue to operate in profit. These JRs and private railways are developing various related businesses related to the lives of railway users and residents along railroad business, such as real estate, retailing, and accommodation business.

Currently it is extremely difficult for other countries to earn profitability in the railway industry, and the railway business is said to be impossible without investment by the government and others. Therefore, the railway industry in other countries is often a public project of public railways and state-owned railways in the country and region. Although railroad networks have been developed by private enterprises during the early days of railways, countries in which the network has been established by private businesses on a nationwide scale in the 21st century are countries such as the United States other than Japan Stay in the department.

This is because there is an extremely high demand for passenger railway as compared with other countries as mentioned above. However, there are few JR Mishima companies (JR Hokkaido, JR Kyushu, JR Shikoku), and many small and medium-sized private railway operators, which are rare in overseas operations such as Tokyo area and Osaka area, enough for maintaining the network If revenues can not be earned and revenue from related businesses is insufficient to fill the railway sector’s deficit, it will face management difficulties. Parallel Conventional Line launched at the opening of the maintenance bullet train line is under the aid of local municipalities, but the routes of JR Hokkaido and JR Shikoku are all in line deficit, JR Kyushu is also the total line deficit except for Shinaguri Line, It is impossible to apply a scheme based on independent reimbursement to business operators.

The proportion of JR Kyushu’s railway business accounts for about 40% of sales, and profits are earned in related businesses such as distribution business and real estate business. The company, which was fully privatized in 2017, was asked to rationalize the railway business, which is a deficit section from shareholders, and due to the March 2018 revision of the schedule, the majority of reductions including major metropolitan areas and major trunk lines were carried out. Not only the deterioration of the convenience of the local line but also the worsening of congestion at the time of the rush are expected in the metropolitan area.

High security and cleanliness
In Japan, railway security and cleanliness are among the highest in the world. Although there are voices pointing out deterioration of security, in Japan it is unlikely that a crime will be encountered even when passengers snooze in a subway car, and women can use the rail alone with peace at midnight. This is noteworthy in terms of the world. In addition, although there are many countries where graffiti on railway cars and trains degraded by equipment damage (vandalism) can be seen, such a thing is rare in present Japan, railway vehicles are generally respected as public goods and clean condition It is kept.

In Japanese culture

Punctuality
Japanese railways are among the most punctual in the world. The average delay on the Tokaido Shinkansen in fiscal 2012 was only 0.6 minutes. When trains are delayed for as little as five minutes, the conductor makes an announcement apologizing for the delay and the railway company may provide a “delay certificate” (遅延証明書), as no one would expect a train to be this late. Japanese passengers rely heavily on rail transit and take it for granted that trains operate on time. When trains are delayed for an hour or more, it may even appear in the newspaper. However, some argue that railway staff are under too much pressure from the public. These stringent standards are considered contributors to the cause of serious accidents such as the Amagasaki rail crash in 2005.

Trains and crime
One of the most widely publicized crimes committed on trains is chikan or groping, taking advantage of overcrowded cars and a reluctance for people to ask for help, or to jump to the aid of another. A recent trend for railway companies to promote their lines is to service female-only cars on some trains (typically during morning rush-hours and late night trains, and often the front or back car) and is quickly becoming a standard practice, especially among Tokyo’s busy commuter lines.

The Japanese language has a number of expressions for unlawfully riding trains without paying the correct fare. One is Satsuma-no-kami. It is a reference to Taira Satsuma-no-kami Tadanori, a member of the Taira clan who is mentioned in the Tale of the Heike. His name, Tadanori, is pronounced the same as words meaning “riding for free”.

Another expression is kiseru jōsha. This refers to a kiseru, a smoking pipe that has a long hollow section made of bamboo between the bowl (where the smoke enters) and the mouthpiece (where it leaves) made of metal. Based on an association of metal and money, kiseru jōsha is the practice of using one ticket to enter the train system and a different ticket to exit, with a long unpaid segment in the middle – purchasing two separate tickets, covering just the initial and final segments of the journey (corresponding to the bowl and mouthpiece), rather than one ticket for the whole length.

Other notable crimes staged in railway facilities in Japan include the assassination of the Prime Minister Hara Takashi in Tokyo Station in 1921, the deliberate train wreck at Mitaka Station in 1949 and the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.

Suicides
Trains are also used as a means to commit suicide. Its relative popularity is partly due to its practical ease, and to avoid causing a nuisance to one’s family, although families are often charged or sued by the railway companies to compensate for the trouble caused by the accident. Suicides often cause delays on the lines on which they occur. The deceased’s family may be charged damages on the order of approximately 1 million yen by railway operating companies. Recently, railway companies have begun implementing measures to discourage and prevent train suicides. This includes use of blue LED lights in stations, which officials hope will calm potential jumpers. Platform edge doors are also being installed at multiple stations in an effort to keep people contained on the platform until the train arrives.

Ekiben
An important aspect of the romance of the rails in Japan is the ekiben, the station bento lunchbox. The first pre-packed station lunchboxes originated at Utsunomiya Station in 1885 and became an instant success. Many stations (eki) around the country soon began to make special bento featuring local specialties such as seafood, meat or vegetables. Including generous portions of rice, the ekiben was a complete meal. It was often served in a wooden box; nowadays cardboard and plastics have become popular, although wooden chopsticks still accompany the ekiben. The Central Committee of the Japanese Association of Railroad Station Concessionaires (社団法人日本鉄道構内営業中央会) is a prominent trade organization promoting ekiben.

In media
Japanese books and television feature rail transport in various contexts. Examples include travelogues visiting rustic routes or unusual trains or murder mysteries on sleeper trains.

A major television series based on rail transport, Ressha Sentai ToQger, was broadcast on TV Asahi from 2014 to 2015.

Source from Wikipedia