The is a limited-stop

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 ...

service operated between and in Japan since 12 March 2011, following the completion of the

Kyushu Shinkansen The is a Japanese Shinkansen high-speed railway network. It is an extension of the San'yō Shinkansen from Honshu connecting the city of Fukuoka (Hakata Station) in the north of Japan's Kyushu Island to the city of Kagoshima (Kagoshima-Chuo Sta ...

. The name was formerly used for a

limited express A limited express is a type of express train or express bus service that stops at fewer locations compared to other express services on the same or similar routes. Japan The term "limited express" is a common translation of the Japanese ...

sleeping car The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car (rail), passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the main American innovator and owner of sl ...

service operated by JNR from 1961, which ran from Tokyo to Kumamoto, and was discontinued in December 1994. The name "" literally means "abundant rice" in Japanese and "harvest" in the figurative sense. It was also an ancient name of Japan. Foreigners traveling with a

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 ...

are required to purchase a special ticket to use the ''Mizuho'' service.

Train formation

''Mizuho'' services are operated by 8-car JR West N700-7000 series and JR Kyushu N700-8000 series trainsets, with car 1 at the Kagoshima-Chuo end. All seats are non-smoking.JR Timetable, March 2012 issue, P.998 In 2021, payphones were removed from cars 3 and 8. In 2024, the smoking compartments were discontinued as smoking is banned on all Shinkansen lines. File:Series-N700-7000 Inside Green-seat.jpg, N700-7000 series Green car interior File:Series-N700-7000 Inside Reserved-seat.jpg, N700-7000 series standard-class reserved car interior File:Series-N700-7000 Inside Ordinary-seat.jpg, N700-7000 series standard-class non-reserved car interior

History

Limited express sleeping car service

The ''Mizuho'' was first introduced on 1 October 1961 as a seasonal

sleeper train service, which ran from to in

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

, supplementing the three existing limited express services, '' Asakaze'', ''

Sakura The cherry blossom, or sakura, is the flower of trees in ''Prunus'' subgenus '' Cerasus''. ''Sakura'' usually refers to flowers of ornamental cherry trees, such as cultivars of ''Prunus serrulata'', not trees grown for their fruit (although ...

'', and ''

Hayabusa was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. ''Hayabusa'', formerly known as MUSES-C ...

'', operating between Tokyo and Kyushu. From 1 October the following year, the service was upgraded from a "seasonal" service to become a daily service. The typical formation at this time was as shown below, with car 1 at the Kumamoto end. Cars 8 to 13 ran only between and Tokyo. From 1 June 1963, 20 series coaches were added to the formation, and the train divided and joined at to serve via the

Nippo Main Line Nippo may refer to: Companies and organizations * Nippo, colloquial name for * Nippo Batteries, an Indian battery manufacturer * Nippo Corporation, a Japanese construction company and sponsor of cycling teams ** EF Education–Nippo, a cycling t ...

in addition to Kumamoto. The schedule was as shown below. The typical formation at this time was as shown below, with car 1 at the Kumamoto end. Cars 1 to 7 ran between Tokyo and Kumamoto, while cars 8 to 13 ran between Tokyo and Oita. From October 1964, the ''Mizuho'' service once again became a direct service between Tokyo and Kumamoto following the introduction of the '' Fuji'' service running between Tokyo and Oita. The typical formation at this time was as shown below, with car 1 at the Kumamoto end. Cars 8 to 14 ran between Tokyo and Hakata only. From March 1972, new 14 series sleeping cars were introduced on ''Mizuho'' services, replacing the 20 series cars. From June 1991, dining car facilities were discontinued, and the ''Mizuho'' service itself was discontinued from 3 December 1994.

Shinkansen

On 20 October 2010, it was formally announced by JR West and JR Kyushu that the ''Mizuho'' name would be used once again from 12 March 2011 for the new limited-stop

services operating between and Kagoshima-Chūō using new JR West and JR Kyushu N700-7000 and N700-8000 series 8-car trainsets with a fastest journey time of 3 hours 45 minutes, some 25 minutes faster than the ''

'' services. Most trains stop only at Shin-Kobe,

Okayama is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

Kokura is an ancient Jōkamachi, castle town and the center of modern Kitakyushu, Japan. Kokura is also the name of the Kokura Station, penultimate station on the southbound San'yō Shinkansen line, which is owned by JR West. Ferries connect Kokura ...

, Hakata, and

Kumamoto is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a populat ...

, operating at a maximum speed of on the Sanyo Shinkansen and on the

. The services are aimed primarily at the business market, with two return services in the morning and two in the evening. An additional daily return working was added from 17 March 2012, increasing the number of services from four to five. By 15 March 2014, there were six daily return workings per direction, with two trains stopping at

Himeji 260px, Himeji City Hall is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 525,682 in 227,099 households and a population density of 980 persons per km2. The total area of the city is ...

to boost connectivity in the Kansai region. As of 14 March 2020, there are eight daily return workings per direction, with some trains making additional stops at

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the List of cities in Japan, twelfth most populated city in Japan. ...

Kurume is a city in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 295,367 in 137,140 households, and a population density of 1309 people per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kurume is located in the Chikugo Plain ...

, Shin-Yamaguchi, Fukuyama or

References

External links