The Japan Railways Group, commonly known as the or simply JR, is a network of railway companies in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

formed after the division and

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

of the government-owned

Japanese National Railways The , abbreviated JNR or , was the business entity that operated Japan's national railway network from 1949 to 1987. Network Railways As of June 1, 1949, the date of establishment of JNR, it operated of narrow gauge () railways in all 46 pre ...

(JNR) on April 1, 1987. The group comprises six regional passenger railway companies, one freight railway company, and two non-service entities. The

JNR Settlement Corporation The , or JNRSC, was a temporary holding company created to distribute the assets of the former Japanese National Railways (JNR) after its privatization in the mid-1980s. On October 22, 1998, the JNRSC was disbanded and placed under the Japan Rail ...

assumed much of the debt of the former JNR. The companies of the JR Group operates a significant portion of Japan’s rail services, including intercity routes, commuter lines, and the

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 ...

high-speed rail network.

JR Hokkaido The is one of the constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group), and is often referred to by its official abbreviation: . It operates intercity and local rail services in Hokkaido, Japan. The company introduced Kitaca, a smart c ...

JR Shikoku The , commonly known as , is the smallest of the seven constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates of intercity and local rail services in the four Prefectures of Japan, prefectures on the island of Shikoku in Jap ...

, and JR Freight (JRF) are governed by the , also known as the JR Companies Act, and are overseen by the public Japan Railway Construction, Transport, and Technology Agency (JRTT). In contrast,

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 ...

, JR Central,

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

, and

JR Kyushu The , also referred to as , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates intercity rail services within Kyushu, Japan. It formerly operated the Beetle hydrofoil service across the Tsushima Strait be ...

are fully privatized and publicly traded. Due to JR’s origins as a government-run entity, Japanese rail users often distinguish JR lines (including some now operated by third-sector entities) from other private railways. This distinction is typically reflected in the way JR and other private railways are labeled on maps.

Background

By the 1970s, passenger and freight business had declined, and fare increases had failed to keep up with higher labor costs. The JR Group companies were formed out of the

of the

in 1987. The seven JR companies recorded a total profit of ¥ 88.9 million in 1988.

Ownership

In 1987, the government of Japan took steps to divide and privatize JNR. While division of operations began in April of that year, privatization was not immediate: initially, the government retained ownership of the companies. Privatization of some of the companies began in the early 1990s. By October 2016, all of the shares of JR East, JR Central, JR West and JR Kyushu had been offered to the market and they are now publicly traded. On the other hand, all of the shares of JR Hokkaido, JR Shikoku and JR Freight are still owned by Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency, an

independent administrative institution An , or Independent Administrative Institution, is a type of legal corporation formulated by the Government of Japan under the Act on General Rules for Incorporated Administrative Agencies (Act no. 103 of 1999, revised in 2014). The independent age ...

of the state. All the JR Group companies operating in the

Honshū , 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 seventh-largest island in the world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian ...

region are 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 ...

and

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 ...

100 indexes.

Companies

The Japan Railways Group consists of seven operating companies and two other companies that do not provide rail service. The operating companies are organized into six passenger operators and a nationwide freight operator. Unlike some other groups of companies, the JR Group is made up of independent companies, and it does not have group headquarters or a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

to set the overall business policy. The six passenger railways of the JR Group are separated by region. Nearly all their services are within the prescribed geographic area. However, some long-distance operations extend beyond the boundaries. The '' Shirasagi'' train service between and , for instance, uses JR West rolling stock but the segment of track between Nagoya and is owned by JR Central, whose crew manage the train on that section.

Japan Freight Railway Company , or , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It provides transportation of cargo nationwide throughout Japan. Its headquarters are in Shibuya, Tokyo near Shinjuku Station. The Japan Railways Group was foun ...

operates all

freight In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in ...

service on the network previously owned by JNR. In addition, the group includes two non-operating companies. These are the

Railway Technical Research Institute , or , is the technical research company under the Japan Railways group of companies. Overview RTRI was established in its current form in 1986 just before Japanese National Railways (JNR) was privatised and split into separate JR group compan ...

and Railway Information Systems Co., Ltd. To cover various non-railway business areas, each regional operator in the JR Group has its own group of subsidiary companies with names like "JR East Group" and "JR Shikoku Group".

Network

JR maintains a nationwide railway network as well as common ticketing rules that it inherited from JNR. Passengers may travel across several JR companies without changing trains and without purchasing separate tickets. However, trains running across the boundaries of JR companies have been reduced. JR maintains the same ticketing rules based on the JNR rules and has an integrated reservation system known as

MARS Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

(jointly developed with

Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

). Some types of tickets (passes), such as

Japan Rail Pass The , also called the JR Pass, is a rail pass sold by the Japan Railways Group exclusively for overseas visitors. It is valid for travel on all major forms of transportation provided by the JR Group in Japan, with a few exceptions. The pass is de ...

and Seishun 18 Ticket, are issued as "valid for all JR lines" and accepted by all passenger JR companies.

Unions

Various unions represent workers at the different JR Group companies, such as the

National Railway Workers' Union The is a Japanese trade union, which is usually referred to as in Japanese. Historically, Kokurō represented many of the workers who worked for Japanese National Railways (JNR), from which the union derived its name. For several decades in the ...

, All Japan Construction, Transport and General Workers' Union, Doro-Chiba, and the

Japan Confederation of Railway Workers' Unions The is a Japanese trade union, which is usually referred to as in Japanese. History The union was founded on 2 February 1987, with the merger of the National Railway Locomotive Engineers' Union (Doro) and the Japan Railway Workers' Union (Tetsu ...

References

* �
Japan

External links

(archived 21 July 2009)

{{Authority control * 1067 mm gauge railways in Japan Standard-gauge railways in Japan Conglomerate companies of Japan Japanese brands