Tag - rail

 
Menu
Search
 
June 05, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

RAIL

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at the Regulatory Reform Promotion Council on Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office.
JAPAN
May 29, 2025
Japan may allow bus and railway firms to enter ride-hailing business
The council called for promoting ride-hailing services to address the nationwide transportation shortage and suggested a trial for bus and railway operators.
All services on East Japan Railway's Yamanote Line in Tokyo were suspended for early Friday morning due to wire trouble.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 23, 2025
Tokyo's Yamanote Line resumes suspended train operations
The loop line was suspended Friday morning due to wire trouble, affecting some 197,000 passengers.
While the cost and logistics of installing platform doors have proven challenging, railway operators are adopting new solutions to lower expenses and increase flexibility.
JAPAN / Society
May 20, 2025
Japan sets goal of having doors on 4,000 train station platforms by fiscal 2030
The decision to raise the target reflects ongoing safety concerns, as accidents involving passengers continue to occur.
Walking along Osaka's Kanjosen brings you closer to a different side of the city that the head-in-the-clouds Expo 2025 misses.
LIFE / Travel
May 17, 2025
Fighting Osaka Expo fatigue? Walk the 21-km Loop Line for a cure.
Officially completed in 1961, the Osaka Kanjosen runs through the city’s most famous and less touristed neighborhoods alike.
Bereaved family members observe a moment of silence on Wednesday at a memorial ceremony for a train collision that killed 42 people in the city of Koka, Shiga Prefecture.
JAPAN
May 14, 2025
34-year memorial held for victims of Shiga train collision
On May 14, 1991, an SKR train and a JR West train collided head-on in Shigaraki, now Koka, killing 42 people and injuring more than 600.
Trainees from Indonesia and Vietnam learn about the mechanisms of train doors using a model at East Japan Railway's training center in Shirakawa, Fukushima Prefecture, in March.
JAPAN / FOCUS
May 14, 2025
JR East to start training foreign nationals under new skills program
JR East aims to train around 100 people each year, and more than 10 railway operators have already expressed interest in joining the initiative.
Yoshitaka Toda, the suspect in Wednesday's knife attack at Todaimae Station on the Tokyo Metro Nanboku Line, leaves a police station in the Japanese capital the same day for a pre-detention medical examination.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 12, 2025
More details emerge about stabbing near Tokyo University metro station
Yoshitaka Toda, 43, claimed he stabbed a student to show how academic pressure could push a child off course.
Yoshitaka Toda is escorted out of a police station in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward on Friday to be sent to prosecutors.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 9, 2025
Suspect in Tokyo Metro stabbing chose station to highlight ‘educational abuse’
Yoshitaka Toda, 43, said he struggled with mental health issues as a result of his parents’ expectations for him to excel academically.
The number of passengers on shinkansen and other express trains during Golden Week increased 3% from a year earlier to over 13 million, data from six Japan Railways group companies showed Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2025
JR express train passengers during Golden Week up 3%
The result is believed to reflect the impact of the 2025 World Exposition in the city of Osaka, as well as demand from foreign visitors.
Kazuo Sumi, former president and chairman of railway operator Hankyu Hanshin Holdings
JAPAN
May 7, 2025
Ex-Hankyu Hanshin Holdings chief Kazuo Sumi dies at 76
The Kansai native died at his house in the city of Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, on April 26.
Public transportation ridership across the U.S. hasn’t yet returned to its pre-COVID peak.
WORLD
Apr 30, 2025
A $6 billion shortfall has U.S. mass transit facing a death spiral
The Trump administration is drastically reining in federal spending, creating fear of job losses that could again decimate ridership.
A message using candles is seen during a memorial event held in the city of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, on Thursday ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 2005 Fukuchiyama Line derailment on Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2025
JR West marks 20 years since fatal derailment with renewed vow for safety
The 2005 Fukuchiyama Line derailment in the city of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, claimed 107 lives and injured more than 560 others.
Sections of the outer loop of Tokyo's Yamanote Line and the Keihin-Tohoku Line will be shut down all day Saturday, and from the start of service through around noon on Sunday.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2025
Parts of Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku lines to be suspended over weekend
The suspensions come as JR East pushes ahead with its Haneda Airport Access Line project.
When a bomber holds a high-speed train to ransom, it’s left to conductor Kazuya Takaichi (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) and his colleagues to save the day in “Bullet Train Explosion.”
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2025
'Bullet Train Explosion’: High-speed disaster movie doesn’t get the pulse racing
Netflix’s most lavish Japanese movie to date whizzes by without doing much damage to the image of the high-speed rail it’s promoting.
A rendering of East Japan Railway's E10 series of bullet trains
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2025
Japan to give India E5 and E3 shinkansen for free
The E10 trains are expected to be put into service in the South Asian country in the early 2030s.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore during an interview in Tokyo. The governor is in Japan on a four-day trade and investment mission.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 14, 2025
Maryland governor talks trains and trade while in Japan
Gov. Wes Moore said he believes the Northeast Maglev — which may use technology from Japan — could transform the region's economy.
Overcrowded trains and a lack of legal consequences for groping in Japan have led to a rise in "chikan," or groping, which has been linked to a mental condition and compounded by cultural stigmas.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 13, 2025
'Chikan' incidents rise as Japan grapples with mental health and cultural challenges
The governments of the U.K. and Canada have warned their citizens traveling to Japan that they could experience inappropriate physical contact — or "chikan" — on crowded trains
A poster calling for the earlier extension of the Hokkaido Shinkansen line to Sapporo is seen in the city's Chuo Ward in May.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Mar 31, 2025
Hokkaido's rail network faces tough challenges
Falling ridership is putting pressure on JR Hokkaido to close underutilized local lines even as it struggles to complete the Hokkaido Shinkansen.
A train station building (front) is assembled from parts printed using 3D printer technology, in Arida, Wakayama Prefecture, on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2025
3D printer used to construct train station building in Japan
The station building in Wakayama Prefecture is the world's first to be built with 3D printer technology, West Japan Railway said.
Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Mar 17, 2025
The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo
Thirty years after Aum Shinrikyo attacked Tokyo’s subways, the nation continues to prepare for the unthinkable.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
Toyota Industries receives $33 billion buyout offer from group companies
Toyota group companies could establish a new holding company to privatize Toyota Industries.
Japan’s fertility rate hits record low despite government push
The total number of births dropped to about 686,000, marking the first time the figure has fallen below 700,000, according to a health ministry release on Wednesday.
South Korea’s Lee pledges to heal deep wounds as ‘president for everyone’
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung waves with his his wife, Kim Hye-gyeong, following his inauguration ceremony at the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday.
Hakuho’s departure highlights worrying sumo trend
Former <i>yokozuna</i> Hakuho performs a ring-entering ceremony at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in February 2020.
Hakuho’s departure highlights worrying sumo trend
Former <i>yokozuna</i> Hakuho performs a ring-entering ceremony at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in February 2020.
Japanese baseball legend Shigeo Nagashima dies at 89
Shigeo Nagashima (left), then the manager of the Tokyo Giants, waves to fans with players and coaches during a victory parade in central Tokyo in 2000. Nagashima died at the age of 89 on Tuesday.
‘A garden is a grand teacher’: The Kamakura Gardener nurtures via YouTube
American Robert Jefferson runs a YouTube channel called The Kamakura Gardener that invites viewers to enjoy the pleasures of gardening, cooking and slow living.
Waves of umami: Awaji Island's culinary trove
Silversea Cruises' culinary program takes guests on a rich gourmet experience at wellness retreat Zenbo Seinei, where the local produce is presented in an eight-course meal.
Hegseth to prioritize China and more allied spending in Asia — but questions remain
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrives for a trilateral meeting between Japan, the U.S. and Australia at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore on Saturday.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027
Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER