The Shinkansen: Japan’s Bullet Train
Travel TechnologyThe original Shinkansen linked Tokyo and Osaka in 1964, and since then the network has grown to span Japan from Kyūshū to Hokkaidō, with its trains moving at ever-increasing speeds.
From Kyūshū to Hokkaidō
The Shinkansen, or “bullet train,” is a Japanese icon. The first route was the Tōkaidō Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka, completed ahead of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and named after the highway that linked east and west Japan in the Edo period (1603–1868). Its trains were the first in the world to achieve a speed of 200 kilometers per hour and became a symbol of Japan’s postwar recovery and subsequent economic miracle. In 1972, the San’yō Shinkansen linked Osaka to Okayama, and this line was further extended in 1975 as far as Hakata in Kyūshū’s Fukuoka Prefecture.
