Shinkansen
Japanese high-speed rail system
The Shinkansen (Japanese: 新幹線; [ɕiŋkaꜜɰ̃seɴ] , lit. 'new main line'), colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of primarily high-speed railway lines in Japan. The system was developed to provide connections between Tokyo and other regions of the country. In addition to long-distance services, some sections in and around the largest metropolitan areas are used for commuter travel.
The first line, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, opened shortly before the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, the 552.6-kilometre (343.4 mi) route connects Tōkyō, Yokohama, Nagoya, and Ōsaka, the four largest cities in Japan. It remains the busiest line in the network, carrying 161 million passengers in fiscal 2023 and more than 6.5 billion passengers in total since opening. During peak periods, up to 16 trains per hour operate in each direction, using 16-car trainsets with a seating capacity of 1,323 and a minimum scheduled headway of three minutes.
Since the opening of the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, the network has expanded to include 2,951.3 kilometres (1,833.9 mi) of lines with maximum operating speeds ranging from 260 to 320 kilometres per hour (160 to 200 mph), the latter achieved on a 387.5-kilometre (240.8 mi) section of the Tōhoku Shinkansen. The network also includes 283.5 kilometres (176.2 mi) of mini-Shinkansen lines with maximum speeds of 130 kilometres per hour (81 mph) and 10.3 kilometres (6.4 mi) of spur lines with Shinkansen services. Shinkansen services operate to most major cities on the islands of Honshu and Kyushu and extend to Hakodate on Hokkaido, with an extension to Sapporo under construction and scheduled to open at the end of fiscal year 2038. In 2024, the Shinkansen network recorded 385.9 million passenger journeys.
“Shinkansen” enters the record as japanese high-speed rail system. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Shinkansen, Japanese and high-speed can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Shinkansen” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Shinkansen, Japanese and high-speed provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q164338. The Library of Congress control number is sh2016001868. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964, 2023, 2038 and 2024.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Shinkansen”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Shinkansen primary sources, Shinkansen archive and Shinkansen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Shinkansen”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Shinkansen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.