Railway - to 1964

The period roughly spanning 1930 and 1937, a period of stability for Japan in the years preceding the Pacific War, is known as Japan's golden age of railways, for it was during this time that travel by the ordinary people also became widespread. With the spread of the war in the Pacific, however, rail transport shifted from passenger conveyance to military transportation, which was primarily concerned with the conveyance of cargo. The air raids brought by the war also spelled great casualties for the railway facilities.

In the wake of the Pacific War, national railways made a fresh start as a public corporation, pressing ahead with modernization in the form of moves such as the electrification of trunk lines and the introduction of diesel onto local lines. The successful realization of high-speed trains backed by advanced safety facilities, best exemplified by the 1964 inauguration of the Tokaido Shinkansen (between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka), made a significant contribution to Japan's postwar economic growth.