JR East runs every bullet train north of Tokyo and ships seafood on them
Japan's biggest passenger railway was carved out of the old state network in 1987, though it took until 2002 to be truly sold off. Today JR East runs the high-speed lines fanning north from Tokyo, sells bento lunches on its trains, and even rents out space between carriages for fragile cargo.
When the government-run Japanese National Railways was broken up, the East Japan Railway Company was incorporated on 1 April 1987 to take over former lines around Greater Tokyo and the Tōhoku region. The word privatisation was generous at first: for years the company belonged entirely to a state settlement body, and its shares were not fully in public hands until 2002. It is now the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies, headquartered in Yoyogi beside Shinjuku Station and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Its network covers the Kanto and Tohoku regions and reaches into Niigata, Nagano, Yamanashi and Shizuoka. It operates all the Shinkansen lines heading north from Tokyo, including the Jōetsu line to Niigata and, jointly with JR West, the Hokuriku line; the one exception is the Hokkaido Shinkansen, run by JR Hokkaido. The famous Tokyo to Osaka Tōkaidō line belongs to a different firm, JR Central, though it calls at several JR East stations.
Bullet trains now carry freight too. A service called Hakobyun sends high-value, delicate or urgent goods, such as precision instruments and premium fresh seafood, in storage spaces between cars; any Shinkansen can take up to 40 boxes, and some services close whole cars to passengers for cargo. Around the railway sit many side businesses: station kiosks and the Newdays convenience chain, JR Bus Kanto and JR Bus Tohoku, and Nippon Restaurant Enterprise, which supplies boxed lunches on trains and in stations.
Beyond transport, the company co-sponsors the JEF United Chiba football club, formed by merging the JR East and Furukawa Electric company teams, and its culture foundation runs the Railway Museum in Saitama. It has set a goal of halving carbon emissions over 1990 to 2030 through more efficient trains, better power stations of its own, and hybrid trains. For a few years it even had a stake in England's West Midlands rail franchise, selling out in 2021.
Source: East Japan Railway Company
