Late night drinkers, movie-goers and those simply working until the last trains of the day will need to finish their pub crawls, popcorn and overtime a little earlier from the coming spring, as East Japan Railway Co. rolls out unprecedented changes mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the health crisis pushing people to work remotely from home and making them hesitant to go out for social gatherings, there has been a severe toll on the nation's largest railway operator in terms of sales.

For the first time since it became a private company in 1987, the firm also known as JR East, which has enjoyed steady passenger demand in the metropolis, posted operating and net losses in its earnings released last week for the first half of this fiscal year.