NAGOYA — It has always amused your author that one of Japan’s best railway museums, JR Central’s SC Maglev and Railway Park, sits in the city that is also the centre of Japan’s aviation industry.
As the first part of the extensive JR network to run the Shinkansen, JR Central’s museum is the one with the widest range of bullet trains, with four full generations of the high-speed trains on display.
As the fastest passenger trains in Japan have evolved, so have their seats. Image: John Walton
During a recent visit, it was striking how consistent the interiors were from the first 1960s’ Series 0 to the modern trains that now operate on the main trunk lines west of Tokyo. Blues in the standard class ordinary cars dominate, as do beiges and browns in the Green Car business class, to this day.
These seats belong in a museum — and, indeed, they are. Image: John Walton
But elsewhere in Japan, the other member companies of the former Japan National Railways, now JR Group, are bringing innovative new cabins to their newer trains.
N700S-8000 (Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen)
Japan’s newest Shinkansen run on the shuttle line to Nagasaki in the far west of Kyushu, and feature interiors designed by Mitooka Eiji, JR Kyushu’s longstanding design consultant. They are structurally the same as other N700S Shinkansen used on the main trunk routes west of Tokyo.
Each of the reserved cars on the new Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen line features a different seat fabric. Image: John Walton
With a strong tourism element to the demand in the region, these interiors draw from the 800 Series, and might well be described as “joyfully bonkers” in the context of other Shinkansen.
With bright yellow seating in a denser 2-3 layout in the non-reserved (and thus less expensive) seats, as well as different colours for the 2-2 reserved cars, it’s immediately visible that you’re on a Kyushu Shinkansen train. Like the 800 Series, they don’t have Green Car business class seats.
The Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen’s reserved seats are in an exceedingly vibrant yellow. Image: John Walton
Together with Kyushu tile motifs on the floors — which vary between cars as well — and regional art pieces in the end vestibule areas, the experience is cleverly designed to be both different enough to delight tourists but similar enough that regular travellers and businesspeople know what they’re going to get.
E8 (forthcoming Yamagata Shinkansen)
The next Shinkansen trains to arrive on the network, from 2024, are the E8, which replace older trains on the Yamagata Shinkansen. This is a “mini-Shinkansen” extension of the Tohoku Shinkansen line that runs north of Tokyo, serving the north-central interior of Japan at conventional speeds (130km/h, 80 mph) on converted older slow lines until it joins the main line at Fukushima. The line then continues to Tokyo, with these new trains running faster than their predecessors 300km/h (186 mph).
Since these mini-Shinkansen trains are narrower to fit inside the older tunnels, their cabins are different too. The ordinary standard car seats are in a 2-2 layout rather than the 2-3 seen on regular Shinkansen trains, but so are the Green Car, whose seats are thus quite a bit narrower than the regular Shinkansen, differentiating mainly in some extra seat pitch, a legrest, and a more sedate cabin.
With Ken Okuyama Design as partners, the two E8 cabins are inspired by the Mogami River, flowing along the line for much of its length — with the verdant Mount Gassan as inspiration in the Green Car and a bright red-orange-yellow gradated safflower in standard. [PDF, in Japanese]
The gradated safflower pattern is especially charming: this is a bright and cheerful cabin that really pops, feeling substantially more premium than average.
E7/W7 Shinkansen (Hokuriku/Joetsu Shinkansen) and E5/H5 Shinkansen (Tohoku/Hokkaido Shinkansen)
These two types (four subtypes) of train from the 2010s offer the only three-class service on the Shinkansen network, with large Gran Class super-recliners in a 1-2 layout, Green Car business class recliners in 2-2, and regular Ordinary Car seats in 2-3.
The E5 (E for JR East) and H5 (H for JR Hokkaido) both run across the other railway company’s tracks to the far north of Japan, and so the similarities are minuscule — a matter of “differing shades of beige and grey” in what are comfortable and elegant, if aesthetically unchallenging, greige cabins. The lesson here: consistency.
The E7 and W7 (W for JR West), meanwhile, travel northwest of Tokyo, splitting at Takasaki for Niigata or Kanazawa (to be extended next year to Fukui and Tsuruga), and are practically indistinguishable from each other. They do, however, have some of the most elegant Shinkansen interiors around, especially in the Green Car where a deep, restful blue with cream accents stands out. This is a great lesson in elegance even within a conservative blue palette.
The E7 and W7 have one of the most attractive seats on the network. Image: John Walton
The ordinary car’s red and black stand out a little less, but are still very pleasant. Gran Class’ first class offerings are very similar to those on the E5/H5 with cabins featuring large cream seats and differentiated primarily by carpet colour.
Accessibility features
One last key learning point of the Shinkansen is accessibility, with space for wheelchairs, fully accessible large “multi-purpose room” bathroom facilities, as well as on some Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen services an accessible private room space with two seats that convert to a flat bed, with space for a wheelchair. This space can also be used by anyone requiring privacy (to nurse or care for a travelling companion, for example) or anyone taken ill on the train.
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- What airlines can learn from Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains
Featured image credited to John Walton
