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, also referred to as , is one of the
Japan Railways Group The Japan Railways Group, commonly known as the or simply JR, is a network of railway companies in Japan formed after the Corporate spin-off, division and privatization of the government-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR) on April 1, 1987. ...
(JR Group) companies and operates in western
Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...
. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the
Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. The exchange is owned by Japan Exchange Group (JPX), a holding company that it also lists (), and operated by Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc., a wholly owned sub ...
, is a constituent of the
TOPIX The , commonly known as the TOPIX, is an important stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Japan, along with the Nikkei 225. The TOPIX tracks the entire market of domestic companies and covers most stocks in the Tokyo Stock Exc ...
Large70 index, and is also one of only three
Japan Railways Group The Japan Railways Group, commonly known as the or simply JR, is a network of railway companies in Japan formed after the Corporate spin-off, division and privatization of the government-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR) on April 1, 1987. ...
constituents of the
Nikkei 225 The Nikkei 225, or , more commonly called the ''Nikkei'' or the ''Nikkei index'' (), is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It is a price-weighted index, operating in the Japanese yen, Japanese Yen (JP¥), and its compone ...
index: the others are
JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...
and JR Central. It was also listed in the
Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...
and
Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...
stock exchanges until late 2020.


Lines


Shinkansen

* Hokuriku Shinkansen ( - ) * San'yō Shinkansen * Hakata Minami Line :: Officially not a
Shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. It was initially built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond lon ...
JR-West's highest-grossing line is the Sanyo Shinkansen
high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail transport network utilising trains that run significantly faster than those of traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated railway track, tracks. While there is ...
line between
Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
and
Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...
. The Sanyo Shinkansen alone accounts for about 40% of JR-West's passenger revenues. The company also operates Hakata Minami Line, a short commuter line with Shinkansen trains in
Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...
.


Urban Network

The "Urban Network" is JR-West's name for its
commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...
lines in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area. These lines together comprise 610 km of track, have 245 stations and account for about 43% of JR-West's passenger revenues. Urban Network stations are equipped to handle ICOCA fare cards. Train control on these lines is highly automated, and during peak hours trains run as often as every two minutes. JR-West's Urban Network competes with a number of private commuter rail operators around Osaka, the "Big 4" being Hankyu Railway/ Hanshin Railway (Hankyu bought Hanshin in April 2005), Keihan Railway, Kintetsu, and Nankai Railway. JR-West's market share in the region is roughly equal to that of the Big 4 put together, largely due to its comprehensive network and high-speed commuter trains (Special Rapid Service trains on the Kobe and Kyoto lines operate at up to 130 km/h). Those in ''italics'' are announcement names. * 20px 20px Akō Line * 20px '' Biwako Line'' ::Officially Tōkaidō Main Line, Hokuriku Main Line * 20px '' Gakkentoshi Line'' ::Officially Katamachi Line * 20px Hanwa Line * 20px Kansai Airport Line * 20px '' JR Kobe Line'' ::Officially Tōkaidō Main Line, San'yō Main Line * 20px Kosei Line * 20px '' JR Kyoto Line'' ::Officially Tōkaidō Main Line * 20px Nara Line * 20px Osaka Loop Line * 20px Osaka Higashi Line * 20px '' Sagano Line'' ::Officially
San'in Main Line The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Kyot ...
* 20px ''Man-yo Mahoroba Line'' ::Officially
Sakurai Line The is a railway line operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) in Nara Prefecture. It connects Nara Station, Nara on the Yamatoji Line to Takada Station (Nara), Takada on the Wakayama Line, with some services continuing on the Wakayama L ...
* 20px '' JR Takarazuka Line'' ::Officially Fukuchiyama Line * 20px JR Tōzai Line * 20px ''
Yamatoji Line The is the common name of the western portion of the Kansai Main Line in Japan. The line is owned and operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It starts at Kamo Station (Kyoto), Kamo Station in Kyoto Prefecture and ends at JR Namba Stat ...
'' ::Officially Kansai Main Line * 20px Wakayama Line * 20px '' JR Yumesaki Line'' ::Officially Sakurajima Line


Intercity and regional lines

A number of other lines account for more than half of JR-West's track mileage. These lines mainly handle business and leisure travel between smaller cities and rural areas in western Japan. They account for about 20% of the company's passenger revenues.


Intercity lines

* 20px Fukuchiyama Line ::Includes ''JR Takarazuka Line''. * 20px Hakubi Line * 20px Hokuriku Main Line ::Includes ''Biwako Line''. * 20px '' Seto-Ōhashi Line'', Chayamachi — Kojima ::Officially '' Seto-Ōhashi Line'' * 20px Kansai Main Line, Kameyama — JR Namba ::Includes ''Yamatoji Line''. * 20px Kisei Main Line, Shingū — Wakayamashi ::Includes ''Kinokuni Line''. * 20px 20px 20px
San'in Main Line The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Kyot ...
::Includes ''Sagano Line''. * 20px 20px 20px 20px 20px 20px San'yō Main Line, Kobe — Shimonoseki, Hyōgo — Wadamisaki. ::Includes ''JR Kobe Line''. * Takayama Main Line, Inotani — Toyama * 20px Tōkaidō Main Line, Maibara — Kobe ::Includes ''Biwako Line'', ''JR Kyoto Line'', and ''JR Kobe Line''.


Regional lines

* * Etsumi-Hoku Line ::Nicknamed '' Kuzuryū Line'' * *
Gantoku Line The is a railway line operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) in Yamaguchi Prefecture, connecting Iwakuni Station in Iwakuni and Kushigahama Station in Shūnan. The line was originally built as a more direct route between its termini t ...
* * Himi Line * * Jōhana Line * * * Momotarō Line ::Officially Kibi Line * * * ::Includes ''Setouchi Sazanami Line'' * * * * Nanao Line * Obama Line * Ōito Line, Minami-Otari — Itoigawa * Onoda Line * * * Ube Line * Uno-Port Line ::Officially Uno Line * File:JRW Tsuyama express train.jpg, A diesel train on a Tsuyama Line express service


Other businesses

JR-West subsidiaries include the following. * West Japan Railway Hotel Development Company - Owns Hotel Granvia Kyoto, Hotel Granvia Osaka, Hotel Granvia Wakayama, Hotel Granvia Okayama, Hotel Granvia Hiroshima, Nara Hotel, Sannomiya Terminal Hotel and Hotel Hopinn Aming * West Japan Railway Isetan - A
joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...
with Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd; operates the Isetan department store in Kyoto Station * West JR Bus Company - Intercity bus operator * Chūgoku JR Bus Company - Intercity bus operator * Japan Railway West Trading Co. * Nippon Travel Agency Co., Ltd * Sagano Scenic Railway * JR-West Miyajima Ferry Company - operator of JR Miyajima Ferry service to the island of Miyajima


History

JR-West was incorporated as a business corporation (
kabushiki kaisha A or ''kabushiki kaisha'', commonly abbreviated K.K. or KK, is a type of defined under the Companies Act of Japan. The term is often translated as "stock company", "joint-stock company" or "stock corporation". The term ''kabushiki gaisha'' i ...
) on April 1, 1987, as part of the breakup of the state-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR). Initially, it was a wholly owned subsidiary of the JNR Settlement Corporation (JNRSC), a special company created to hold the assets of the former JNR while they were shuffled among the new JR companies. For the first four years of its existence, JR-West leased its highest-revenue line, the Sanyō Shinkansen, from the separate Shinkansen Holding Corporation. JR-West purchased the line in October 1991 at a cost of 974.1 billion JPY (about US$7.2 billion) in long-term debt. JNRSC sold 68.3% of JR-West in an
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. The exchange is owned by Japan Exchange Group (JPX), a holding company that it also lists (), and operated by Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc., a wholly owned sub ...
in October 1996. After JNRSC was dissolved in October 1998, its shares of JR-West were transferred to the government-owned Japan Railway Construction Public Corporation (JRCC), which merged into the Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency (JRTT) as part of a bureaucratic reform package in October 2003. JRTT offered all of its shares in JR-West to the public in an international IPO in 2004, ending the era of government ownership of JR-West. JR-West is now listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Nagoya Stock Exchange, Osaka Securities Exchange and Fukuoka Stock Exchange.


Accidents and incidents

* Shigaraki train disaster: A collision between a JR West and a Shigaraki Kōgen Railway train in Shigaraki (now Koka), Shiga Prefecture on 14 May 1991, killed 42 people. * Amagasaki derailment: A train derailment in Amagasaki,
Hyōgo Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to th ...
on 25 April 2005, killed 107 people.


References


External links

* {{Authority control Companies based in Osaka Prefecture Railway companies established in 1987 Companies listed on the Osaka Exchange Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies listed on the Fukuoka Stock Exchange Companies in the Nikkei 225 Japanese companies established in 1987 Japan Railway companies