Central Japan Railway Co.'s maglev line, approved Friday, will speed travelers from Tokyo to Nagoya in just 40 minutes, beating the fastest shinkansen by more than half the time.
The technology for building magnetically levitated trains, which has been under research since 1962, is also being hawked overseas. JR Tokai, as the railway is known, and the central government are pushing to expand Japan's infrastructure exports.
The project, however, could see cost overruns as it faces unprecedented engineering challenges, such as what to do with huge quantities of soil generated by the construction of tunnels for the service, which will run mostly underground.