Railway Operation Act

There are many laws concerning the railway business in Japan, and Act No. 65 of 1900, commonly known as the Railway Operation Act might be interesting. Even though the law remains in force and has partly been amended in 2025, it is written in classical Japanese, making it hard to read for those unfamiliar with law or literature.

The law is short as it only contains around 50 provisions. It regulates basic rules concerning the operation of train services. For example, fares as well as terms and conditions must be published in advance (Article 3), and train operators may refuse to transport gunpowder and other explosive materials (Article 5). Those who board a train without a valid ticket may be fined up to 20,000 yen (Article 29), and those who asked for a donation, sold or distributed something or made a speech without permission may face a fine of no more than 10,000 yen (Article 35).

However, there are a few questionable provisions that might no longer fit for purpose. Here are three examples chosen by the author.

The "pushers" and the law

Trains in the Greater Tokyo Area are so crowded in the morning that it is common to see station staff pushing passengers onto an overcrowded train. However, Article 26 of the law stipulates that "Any railway staff member who forcibly let passengers onto an overloaded train shall be punished by a fine of up to 20,000 yen". Do the station staff in the Greater Tokyo Area violate the law every morning?

The answer is no. Railway companies and the authorities have interpreted the law that it does not prohibit passengers from voluntarily boarding an overcrowded train, and the staff are regarded as "merely" assisting them. No railway employees have been charged with the violation of Article 26 for decades, indicating that this provision is no longer effectively enforced.

COVID-19 and trains

Article 4 paragraph 1 of the law stipulates that "Any patient with an infectious disease may not board a train except in accordance with rules prescribed by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. According to Article 41 of the law, anyone who violated Article 4 or concealed the disease shall be punished by a fine of up to 20,000 yen, and fares already paid will not be refunded.

Thus, any COVID-19 patient who knowingly boarded a train technically violated the law, but there has been no report of such incidents. To be exact, there were in fact a few people arrested on a train or at a station whilst having infected with COVID, but they were charged with severer offences such as Forcible Obstruction of Business (Article 234 of the Penal Code). For example, Yomiuri Shimbun reported in January 2022 that a 20-year-old man was arrested after threatening other passengers on a Tokaido Line train with COVID, causing a 15-minute delay.

Use of firearms

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According to Article 39 of the law, anyone who discharged a gun shall be punished by a fine of up to 20,000 yen. Needless to say, another law regulates the case and thus the Railway Operation Act is almost never used. Act for Controlling the Possession of Firearms or Swords and Other Such Weapons strictly regulates the use of firearms, and Article 3-13 stipulates that unless certain conditions are met, nobody is allowed to discharge a gun at public spaces including roads, parks, stations, theatres, department stores as well as trains and buses. Article 31 provides anyone who violated Article 3-13 shall be punished by imprisonment of more than three years or even life imprisonment, even if no damage to life or property is caused.

Before 1958, Article 39 of the Railway Operation Act did play an important role, but after the Act for Controlling the Possession of Firearms or Swords and Other Such Weapons was promulgated, the Railway Operational Act might no longer be needed in this context.

The Railway Operation Act is an old law, so it is no wonder why many of its provisions now sound outdated. When it comes to serious offences, other laws are likely to be applied with even harsher penalties. Nevertheless, the Railway Operation Act is still valid today, and thus all railway users must comply with the law.

Closing the blog

I have decided to terminate this blog.

Two years ago, I considered closing the blog due to very low number of visitors. Fortunately, the trend has changed, as the annual "page views" exceeded 31,000, which was 3.2 times higher than back in 2023. While these figures do not mean how many people have actually visited the blog, and I am fully aware that they are still low, they encouraged me to post articles regularly. I have also received quite a few heartwarming messages, mainly via Mastodon, for which I am truly grateful.

However, it has become increasingly difficult to keep the blog running since last year. Google has been refusing to index Blogger pages, presumably due to technical issues. It has been widely reported that Blogger's mobile templates cause redirect errors in which Google effectively omits pages from the search results, and this blog is no exception. Most articles of this blog used to be indexed by Google, but they have disappeared. Despite nearly a year having passed since the problem emerged, there is no sign of improvement. I did my best to solve the issue with my extremely limited knowledge, but the blog still remains invisible on Google. I feel powerless against it, and although other search engines like Bing still covers this blog, I am gradually losing interest in keeping it active.

In addition, I have less time to do my hobbies than before, less time to take railway photos and less time to draft an article. Since I will soon move on to a new workplace, where far more tasks are expected, it will undoubtedly be harder to maintain the blog, or even to maintain interest in the railway itself.

For these reasons, I have concluded that it will no longer be able to maintain this blog. New articles will be uploaded on the second and fourth Saturdays each month until the end of this year. The provisional date for the final article is 27th December 2025, and the blog will remain open until the end of the financial year 2025 (i.e. 31st March 2026).

The Red List of Trains in Japan is not affected by this decision.

I regret having to make this decision, and I sincerely appreciate your understanding.

More Hitachi Trains

Earlier this month, I visited the United Kingdom for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. As soon as I arrived at King's Cross on day 2, I found a new Hitachi train that was not in service yet when I lived in London six years ago. This is Hull Trains Class 802 Paragon, which entered service ten weeks after I left the UK in 2019. This dark blue livery and pink doors with black front end is a combination of colours that would never be seen in Japan.

On the following day, I could see Class 807 Evero, another Hitachi train type used by Avanti West Coast. The first unit entered into service in October 2024, less than a year ago. As the newest high-speed trains on the West Coast Main Line, the Class 802 is mainly used for services between Euston and Birmingham New Street, Blackpool North, Liverpool Lime Street or Manchester Piccadilly, but not as far as Scotland.

Avanti West Coast has painted its rolling stock dark-green, black and white, and partly red. They are another combination of colours that is hardly found on any Japanese train network, so it looked fresh to me.

When I lived in London six years ago, there were only three Hitachi high-speed trains on the National Rail network: Class 395 Javelin (Southeastern), Class 800 or 802 Intercity Express Train (Great Western Railway) and Class 800 Azuma (London North Eastern Railway). Six years on, more train operators introduced various Hitachi A-train units and use them across England as well as part of Wales and Scotland. While most of them were built not in Japan but in Newton Aycliffe, those Hitachi trains are arguably similar to limited express trains in Japan, and thus the Japanese people must now feel more comfortable in the UK than before – including myself.

No blog update on 13th September 2025

This blog is usually updated every other week (the second and fourth Saturdays each month), but there will be no new article on 13th September, as I will be extremely busy with a ten-day business trip. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

"Local" that was faster than "Rapid"

Train companies in Japan provide various types of service, ranging from cheap slow trains to expensive but fast trains. Generally speaking, Futsu (普通, meaning "standard" "normal" or "ordinary", often referred to as "Local" in English) is the slowest one amongst all, calling at all stations. Kaisoku, (快速, often referred to as "Rapid" in English), is usually a semi-fast service that does not charge extra fares. However, there were a few Local trains that called at fewer stations than Rapid trains.

Chuo Main Line

Chuo Main Line in Tokyo is one of the busiest commuter railways in the country. Orange commuter trains run mainly between Tokyo and Takao, operating as rapid or special rapid. In addition, yellow commuter trains run between Ochanomizu and Mitaka, which are labelled Kakueki Teisha (各駅停車, meaning "stopping at all stations", also often referred to as "Local" in English). The line from Takao to the west is mostly served by shorter suburban trains, and services there are called Futsu (already confusing).

Until the last day of November 1993, there were a few Futsu services to and from Shinjuku, provided by blue and white suburban trains. Despite being called Futsu (Local), they stopped at fewer stations than rapid services or even special rapid services. Service patterns of orange commuter trains were the same as those of today, but the Futsu trains stopped only at Mitaka, Tachikawa, Hachioji and Takao. The trains did not even stop at Mitaka before 1986.

The table below shows Chuo Line service patterns in 1993 (weekdays). Rapid services called at all stations on the list.

	Special Rapid	Futsu
Shinjuku	✓	✓
Koenji
Asagaya
Ogikubo
Nishi-Ogikubo
Kichijoji
Mitaka	✓	✓
Musashi-Sakai
Higashi-Koganei
Musashi-Koganei
Kokubunji	✓
Nishi-Kokubunji
Kunitachi
Tachikawa	✓	✓
Hino	✓
Toyoda	✓
Hachioji	✓	✓
Nishi-Hachioji	✓
Takao	✓	✓

Due to an increased demand for commuter trains and congestion, the Futsu trains between Shinjuku and Takao were replaced with more frequent Chuo Tokkai special rapid services on 1 December 1993.

Joban Line

In addition to Kakueki Teisha (Local, all-stations) services between Ayase and Toride, Futsu services that were faster than rapid services had also existed on Joban Line until March 2004. The rapid services call at Nippori, Mikawashima, Minami-Senju, Kita-Senju, Matsudo, Kashiwa, Abiko, Tennodai and Toride. Meanwhile, Futsu services did not stop at Mikawashima and Minami-Senju during rush hours. The Futsu services called at even fewer stations before 1988, and some of them overtook rapid trains. They were extremely confusing especially for those who were not familiar with the line.

Since March 2004, all Futsu services stop at Mikawashima and Minami-Senju stations. As both the Futsu and rapid have become effectively the same, JR East incorporated the Futsu to rapid services in October 2004.

Why were there such confusing Local trains?

In both cases, Futsu trains were faster than rapid trains. To understand these tricky cases, it is essential to understand subtle and confusing differences between Japanese terms.

Traditionally, Futsu in the Greater Tokyo Aera was classified into ressha (列車), while rapid and Kakueki Teisha were classified into densha (電車). Generally speaking, both ressha (列車) and densha (電車) mean "train", but to be specific, densha means "electric train" for short-distance services with many stops. In other words, densha is just one form of ressha. Other types of ressha include, for example, diesel trains, limited express trains and freight trains. Thus, Futsu has been classified into a different category to rapid or Kakueki Teisha.

Historically, ressha usually meant coach trains hauled by locomotives. Most such trains were hauled by steam locomotives before the Second World War, which were heavy with poor acceleration and braking, and thus unsuited for services in urban areas which require frequent acceleration and deacceleration. Electric multiple units (densha), which were lighter and had far better acceleration and swift braking, became common in Tokyo by the 1930s, but they were costly and not reliable enough for long-distance services. Hence, electric trains were mostly used for short-distance services (i.e. commuter railways) with many stops, while loco-hauled trains were used for middle to long-distance services with fewer stops.

Japanese National Railways introduced electric multiple units to long-distance services in the early-1950s and gradually replaced locomotives and coaches, but the distinction of ressha and densha remained unchanged. It is also worth noting that long-distance Futsu services remained until the 1980s. For example, there were a few local (Futsu) services running between Ueno and Sendai via Mito until 1982.

Even after the privatisation of JNR, the remnant of the old days existed for nearly 20 years. This is why there were Futsu local services with fewer stops than rapid or even special rapid services on Chuo and Joban Lines. This is a good example of how historical legacies affected Japanese railways, though they have mostly disappeared today.