On Oct. 23, 2004, at 5:56 p.m., the first shinkansen derailment in history occurred when a bullet train en route from Tokyo to Niigata went off the tracks following a powerful earthquake in the Chuetsu region in Niigata Prefecture.

Toki No. 325 was cruising at 204 kph on the Joetsu Shinkansen Line between Urasa and Nagaoka stations when the temblor hit.

But a major catastrophe was avoided when the train straddled a trackside rail, causing it to grind to a halt with carriages only tilted to the side, rather than flipped.