🇯🇵 Country
Train routes in Japan
78 routes · high-speed 9 · classic 18 · night train 1 · scenic 28 · heritage 7 · mountain 5 · luxury 10
78 routes cross Japan in the World Train Map atlas. The longest is the Train Suite Shiki-shima at 1,522 km; the fastest is the Hayabusa, running up to 320 km/h; the oldest line dates to 1898. Every route links to its facts, photo and story, and to the interactive world map.
Open the world railway map →High-speed (9)
- Tokaido Shinkansen
The original bullet train, opened for the 1964 Olympics: the world’s busiest high-speed line, with departures every few minutes past Mount Fuji.
Wikipedia ↗ - Hokuriku Shinkansen
Over the Japanese Alps to the samurai gardens of Kanazawa: copper-and-blue E7s built for deep snow country.
Wikipedia ↗ - Hayabusa
Japan’s fastest trains dive beneath the sea through the 53.9 km Seikan Tunnel to reach Hokkaido.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sanyo Shinkansen
The Inland Sea corridor past Himeji Castle and Hiroshima, and the home turf of the needle-nosed 500 Series.
Wikipedia ↗ - Kyushu Shinkansen
Down the volcanic spine of Kyushu toward Sakurajima’s smoking cone: mostly inside tunnels, all speed.
Wikipedia ↗ - Joetsu Shinkansen
Dives under the Tanigawa range into Kawabata’s snow country. Tokyo to metres-deep Echigo-Yuzawa powder and Niigata’s sake coast in under ninety minutes.
Wikipedia ↗ - Akita Shinkansen
Crimson “Komachi” units ride the Hayabusa at 320 km/h to Morioka, then swap to single-track mountain rails past Lake Tazawa: a bullet train on a branch-line stage.
Wikipedia ↗ - Yamagata Shinkansen
Japan’s first mini-shinkansen: beyond Fukushima the “Tsubasa” runs re-gauged valley rails below Zao’s slopes into cherry and soba country.
Wikipedia ↗ - Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen
Japan’s newest and shortest bullet line. The white-and-red “Kamome” skims Omura Bay to Nagasaki while politics still debates the missing link to Hakata.
Wikipedia ↗
Classic (18)
- Limited Express Azusa
The alpinists’ express. E353s bank through Katsunuma’s vineyards and the Suwa lake basin to Matsumoto’s black castle, gateway to the Japan Alps.
Wikipedia ↗ - Limited Express Sonic
The blue “wonderland express”: tilting 883s reverse at Kokura and chase the coast past Nakatsu to the steaming hells of Beppu and Oita.
Wikipedia ↗ - Spacia X
Tobu’s champagne-white flagship to Nikko’s shrine forest: a cockpit lounge, craft beer on draught, and Tokyo Skytree receding from the rear window.
Wikipedia ↗ - Odakyu Romancecar
Front-row observation seats since 1957, when the SE set a world narrow-gauge speed record. Shinjuku to Hakone’s hot springs without a change.
Wikipedia ↗ - Narita Express
Twin sets from Yokohama and Shinjuku couple at Tokyo Station, then run as one red-and-black E259 through the Sobu tunnels out to Narita Airport.
Wikipedia ↗ - Thunderbird
Since the 2024 bullet-train extension it sprints from Osaka up the wild western shore of Lake Biwa to Tsuruga, Hokuriku’s new shinkansen gateway.
Wikipedia ↗ - Haruka
Kansai Airport’s purple-and-white express, covering 99 km from Kyoto’s temples out across the bay to the man-made island runway.
Wikipedia ↗ - Kaiji
Chuo Line express using the E353’s active tilt to swing through the mountain-walled Katsura valleys up to the vineyard capital of Kofu.
Wikipedia ↗ - Hokuto
Diesel tilting express curving 319 km around Uchiura Bay past the volcanoes Usu and Komagatake, linking Sapporo with old Hakodate.
Wikipedia ↗ - Ozora
Crosses Hokkaido’s wild interior, the Hidaka range and the Sekisho tunnels, to the crane marshes of Kushiro on the far Pacific coast.
Wikipedia ↗ - Laview
Seibu’s radical Laview, with a huge curved windscreen and yellow living-room windows, climbs from Ikebukuro into the Chichibu mountains.
Wikipedia ↗ - Yakumo
JR West’s new 2024 tilting 273 series takes the Hakubi line’s passes to Izumo, home of Japan’s oldest grand shrine.
Wikipedia ↗ - Marine Liner
Every half hour it rides the lower deck of the 13.1 km Great Seto Bridge: the Seto Inland Sea’s only rail crossing, strung across five islands since 1988.
Wikipedia ↗ - Aoniyoshi
A 2022 salon train styled on Nara’s Tenpyō court art, linking Osaka, the old capital Nara and Kyoto with a library bar and a sweets counter.
Wikipedia ↗ - Limited Express Shinano
Tilting up the Kiso Valley: the old Nakasendō post road’s gorge and pass country on the classic mountain road to Nagano.
Wikipedia ↗ - Limited Express Shiokaze
Along the Seto Inland Sea’s island-studded shore to Dōgo Onsen, Japan’s oldest hot spring — Shikoku’s busiest express, tilting the whole way.
Wikipedia ↗ - Limited Express Kamui
Hokkaido’s busiest shuttle: near-hourly across the Ishikari plain to Asahikawa, the doorway to Biei’s hills and Daisetsuzan’s peaks.
Wikipedia ↗ - Limited Express Okhotsk
One of Japan’s last great remote expresses: over the Kitami Pass through forest-empty interior to the drift-ice coast of the Sea of Okhotsk.
Wikipedia ↗
Night train (1)
- Sunrise Express
Japan’s last regular sleeper; the Izumo half splits at Okayama and takes the Hakubi Line gorges to the sacred San’in coast by breakfast.
Wikipedia ↗
Scenic (28)
- Tadami Line
Reopened in 2022 after 11 years of flood repairs; drifts over the mist-wreathed Tadami River bridges through Japan’s deepest snow country.
Wikipedia ↗ - Kurobe Gorge Railway
Dam-builders’ narrow-gauge torokko clinging to Japan’s deepest gorge: the full line to Keyakidaira returns in October 2026 after the Noto quake.
Wikipedia ↗ - Hakone Tozan Railway
Japan’s oldest mountain railway hauls itself up 1-in-12.5 grades through three switchbacks, hydrangeas brush the windows each June.
Wikipedia ↗ - Resort Shirakami
A rapid that idles on purpose: shamisen players aboard, the Sea of Japan breaking at Senjojiki, and UNESCO’s Shirakami beech forests behind the dunes.
Wikipedia ↗ - Yufuin no Mori
Forest-green parlour cars with a buffet of Kyushu treats: over the Mino passes and along the Kusu valley to the boutique onsen town under Mount Yufu.
Wikipedia ↗ - Saphir Odoriko
All-Green-Car luxury down the Izu coast: nose windows, a fresh noodle bar, and Sagami Bay filling the glass roof beyond Atami’s tunnels.
Wikipedia ↗ - Limited Express Hida
Hybrid HC85s shadow the jade-green Hida River for hours of gorge: riverside onsen at Gero, morning markets at Takayama, then down to Toyama Bay.
Wikipedia ↗ - Marumaru no Hanashi
A KiHa 47 dawdling along the San’in coast between Shimonoseki and Hagi, timed so the Sea of Japan fills the windows — back running after 2025’s storm damage.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗ - Enoden
Century-old seaside interurban that skims Shonan’s surf beaches and brushes past house walls; its Kamakurakokomae crossing is an anime shrine.
Wikipedia ↗ - Isumi Railway
Restored 1960s diesel railcars trundle past rice paddies and spring nanohana blossoms through the rural heart of the Boso Peninsula.
Wikipedia ↗ - Shimakaze
Kintetsu’s luxury Shimakaze (double-decker observation cars, leather saloons and a café) glides to the pearl bays and shrines of Ise-Shima.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗ - Fujisan View Express
Steep little Fujikyu line to Lake Kawaguchi, its wide panorama windows framing Mt Fuji rising straight ahead.
Wikipedia ↗ - Ibusuki no Tamatebako
Split black-and-white treasure box train that puffs a cloud of mist from its doors, rounding Kinko Bay to the hot-sand baths of Ibusuki.
Wikipedia ↗ - Aso Boy!
Family sightseeing express with a panorama cab and play areas, zig-zagging the Tateno switchback into the vast Mt Aso caldera.
Wikipedia ↗ - Watarase Keikoku Railway
Open-sided torokko trolleys wind up the Watarase gorge on the old Ashio copper-mine line, ablaze with wisteria and autumn maple.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sanriku Railway Rias Line
Japan’s longest third-sector railway follows 163 km of tsunami-rebuilt coast; the final gap closed in 2019, eight years after the 2011 wave.
Wikipedia ↗ - Limited Express Kuroshio
Around the Kii Peninsula with the Pacific at the window: Shirahama’s sands, Honshu’s southernmost cape and the Kumano pilgrim coast.
Wikipedia ↗ - Limited Express Nanpu
Across the Great Seto Bridge, then up the Yoshino river’s Oboke and Koboke gorges, tilting over the island spine to Kochi.
Wikipedia ↗ - Tama Densha
Eiji Mitooka’s white train painted with 101 cartoon Tamas trundles to Kishi, where calico stationmaster Tama famously saved the line — a cat shrine now guards the platform.
Wikipedia ↗ - Kairi
Kairi means “sea and village”: a hybrid diner serving Niigata and Shonai delicacies while threading the Sasagawa-nagare, 11 km of wave-gnawed rocks on the Uetsu coast.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗ - GRAN Tenku
Nankai’s deep-red 2026 flagship runs through from Namba’s neon to Gokurakubashi, grinding up 50‰ cedar slopes to the cable car for sacred Koyasan — lounge and bar aboard.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗ - Umisachi-Yamasachi
Obi-cedar railcars named for the sea-luck, mountain-luck myth skim the Nichinan palm coast past Aoshima’s Devil’s Washboard reefs to the fishing port of Nango.
Wikipedia ↗ - A-Train (Amakusa)
A jazz-soundtracked bar on rails — dark wood, stained glass, “A-Highball” in hand — swinging along the Ariake tidal flats from Kumamoto to the Amakusa ferry at Misumi.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗ - HIGH RAIL 1375
Grinds to 1,375 m at JR’s highest rail point below Yatsugatake — observatory seats by day, a stargazing dome and astronomer-guided night runs under the Milky Way.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗ - etSETOra
etSETOra drifts the Kure Line’s island-studded Seto shore with Hiroshima patissiers’ sweets courses and a sake bar — extended in 2025 to run clear through to Fukuyama.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗ - Koshino Shu*Kura
A sake brewery on wheels — Niigata tasting bar, live jazz, a long pause on the sea cliff at Aoumigawa — winding via Nagaoka into snow-country Tokamachi.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗ - Belles montagnes et mer
“Beautiful mountains and sea”: an emerald art-gallery railcar where a sushi chef works the counter as Amaharashi bay frames 3,000-metre Tateyama across the water.
Wikipedia ↗ - Ametsuchi
Lapis-blue Ametsuchi — “heaven and earth” from the Kojiki’s opening line — roams the San’in coast’s breakers past Mt Daisen and Lake Shinji from Tottori to Izumo.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗
Heritage (7)
- Sagano Scenic Railway
A retired JR alignment above the Hozugawa rapids: twenty-five slow minutes of maples and gorge that the modern main line skips through tunnels.
Wikipedia ↗ - SL Gunma
Restored D51 498 “Degoichi” and C61 20 haul retro coaches up the Joetsu Line on weekends: steam echoing off the Tone gorge under Tanigawa’s wall.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗ - Oigawa SL Kawane-ji
Vintage C11 steam locomotives haul old coaches up the Oi River valley: the same railway that runs Japan’s Thomas the Tank Engine trains.
Wikipedia ↗ - Tsugaru Stove Train
Aboard Japan’s northernmost private railway, attendants grill squid on pot-belly coal stoves while blizzards bury the Tsugaru plain outside.
Wikipedia ↗ - SL Yamaguchi
A pacific steam locomotive has hauled this special up the Yamaguchi line to the little castle town of Tsuwano, the “Kyoto of San-in”, since 1979.
Wikipedia ↗ - SL Banetsu Monogatari
C57 180 — “the Lady” — hauls seven retro coaches up the Agano river gorge from Niitsu to castle-town Aizu-Wakamatsu, one of Japan’s last full-size mainline steam runs.
Wikipedia ↗ - SL Paleo Express
The closest steam to Tokyo: wartime C58 363 huffs four retro coaches from Kumagaya into the Chichibu hills past Nagatoro’s rock terraces — running since 1988.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗
Mountain (5)
- Koyasan Cable Car
Nankai’s 1930 cable car hoists pilgrims up the final 328 m to UNESCO-listed Kōyasan, the mountaintop monastery town of Shingon Buddhism.
Wikipedia ↗ - Hakone Tozan Cable Car
Japan’s second-oldest funicular (1921) links Gōra with the Hakone Ropeway at Sōunzan — the cable-hauled leg of the classic Hakone circuit.
Wikipedia ↗ - Mount Takao Cable Car
Japan’s steepest railway — a 608 permil grade near the top — lifting hikers up Michelin three-star Mount Takao since 1927.
Wikipedia ↗ - Ikoma Cable Car
Japan’s first cable railway (1918) still climbs Mount Ikoma as the country’s only double-track funicular, famed for its animal-faced cars.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sakamoto Cable
Japan’s longest funicular — 2,025 m up Mount Hiei to UNESCO-listed Enryaku-ji, with Lake Biwa views — running since 1927.
Wikipedia ↗
Luxury (10)
- Seven Stars in Kyushu
Japan’s first luxury cruise train: ten suites and a piano bar on a slow lap of Kyushu’s volcano country; berths routinely go to a lottery.
Wikipedia ↗ - Twilight Express Mizukaze
Heir to the beloved Twilight Express: emerald art-deco suites and open observation decks drifting along the San’in coast’s empty beaches.
Wikipedia ↗ - Train Suite Shiki-shima
JR East’s champagne-gold cruise train: four days from Ueno through Tōhoku and under the Seikan Tunnel to Hokkaido, in suites with cypress baths — Japan’s hardest train ticket.
Wikipedia ↗ - TOHOKU EMOTION
A restaurant on rails — open kitchen car, chef’s courses at every seat — rolling the Sanriku surf from Hachinohe to Kuji along the Tanesashi coast.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗ - Setsugekka
Crimson-and-silver resort train with Japan’s largest train windows, serving regional courses on a slow sweep from Mt Myoko’s snow country to the Sea of Japan at Itoigawa.
Wikipedia ↗ - Iyonada Monogatari
A retro maroon-and-gold diner idling along the Iyonada shore — brunch above the waves and a pause at Shimonada, Japan’s most photographed seaside platform.
Wikipedia ↗ - Blue Symphony
Navy-and-gold Blue Symphony glides from Osaka Abenobashi to holy Yoshino — UNESCO cherry mountain — with a lounge bar, cake sets and armchairs in a reborn commuter train.
Wikipedia ↗ - Tosa Toki no Yoake no Monogatari
Ryoma-themed “dawn of a new era” train pairs Tosa seafood with Pacific panoramas above Susaki and Tosa-Kure bays, locals waving it through tea fields to Kubokawa.
Wikipedia ↗ - Hanayome Noren
A rolling Kaga bridal curtain: vermilion-and-black cars finished in Wajima-lacquer motifs and gold leaf, serving Ishikawa sweets en route to Wakura Onsen’s seaside baths.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗ - Rokumon
Rokumon wears the Sanada clan’s six-coin crest in deep crimson, serving kaiseki under Mt Asama on the old Shinetsu main line from Karuizawa down to Zenko-ji’s Nagano.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗
Photos via Wikimedia Commons — each route page credits the author & licence