Railway - to 1930

In parallel moves to railroad construction on the part of private railways, the state was also forging ahead with such trunk routes, as the Hokuriku main line, and as of 1897 succeeded in completing one of the most outstanding railway networks in the Asian region. However, this growth of the railway network nationwide brought with it the need for a uniformity of standard, which resulted in the nationalization of the major private railways in 1906.

Once the nationalization of the railways had been carried out, provisions were completed for local trunk routes such as those of Sanyo and Kyushu, and in the cities, electric railways began to spring up one after the other. With the improvement of major trunk routes progressing apace, 1914 saw the completion of Tokyo Station as the central station. Further advances included the creation of multiple lines, the elevation of track in urban areas, the enlargement of rolling stock, and the wider employment of steel manufacture, among other moves, one of the results of which was that 1930 saw the superexpress Tsubame cut the 10 hours it had taken to cover the distance between Tokyo and Kobe down to a mere eight hours.