[Breaking News]Sanyo Shinkansen Line

FUKUOKA, Japan, March 10 Kyodo - A Shinkansen bullet train runs on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line in the southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka on March 10, 2025, the 50th anniversary since the full opening of the line connecting Hakata and Shin-Osaka stations in Fukuoka and Osaka prefectures, respectively. (Kyodo)

Sanyo Shinkansen Line

Sanyo Shinkansen Line

A Shinkansen bullet train runs on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line in the southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka on March 10, 2025, the 50th anniversary since the full opening of the line connecting Hakata and Shin-Osaka stations in Fukuoka and Osaka prefectures, respectively.

Sanyo Shinkansen Line

Sanyo Shinkansen Line

A Shinkansen bullet train runs on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line in the southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka on March 10, 2025, the 50th anniversary since the full opening of the line connecting Hakata and Shin-Osaka stations in Fukuoka and Osaka prefectures, respectively.

Sanyo Shinkansen Line

Sanyo Shinkansen Line

A Shinkansen bullet train runs on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line in the southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka on March 10, 2025, the 50th anniversary since the full opening of the line connecting Hakata and Shin-Osaka stations in Fukuoka and Osaka prefectures, respectively.

Sanyo Shinkansen Line

Sanyo Shinkansen Line

A Shinkansen bullet train runs on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line in the southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka on March 10, 2025, the 50th anniversary since the full opening of the line connecting Hakata and Shin-Osaka stations in Fukuoka and Osaka prefectures, respectively.

Sanyo Shinkansen Line

Sanyo Shinkansen Line

A Shinkansen bullet train runs on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line in the southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka on March 10, 2025, the 50th anniversary since the full opening of the line connecting Hakata and Shin-Osaka stations in Fukuoka and Osaka prefectures, respectively.

Tokyo-Osaka bullet train service resumes after halt

Tokyo-Osaka bullet train service resumes after halt

A train service information board at JR Hamamatsu Station in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan, shows the resumption of services on the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen lines on the morning of July 23, 2024. An accident involving railway maintenance vehicles caused an all-day suspension on part of the Tokaido Shinkansen Line a day earlier, while the Sanyo Shinkansen Line was also disrupted by the accident.

Retired shinkansen train

Retired shinkansen train

TOKYO, Japan - Members of a family have fun around a 0 series shinkansen bullet train displayed at the SCMAGLEV and Railway Park museum in Nagoya on Dec. 5, 2011. The original 0 series trains were put into operation when the Tokaido Shinkansen Line opened in 1964. They ran on the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen lines and retired in 2008.

Countdown board for Kyushu shinkansen operation in Osaka

Countdown board for Kyushu shinkansen operation in Osaka

OSAKA, Japan - A board counting down the days until the start of the Sanyo-Kyushu Shinkansen Line is unveiled at JR Shin-Osaka Station in Osaka on Oct. 13, 2010, with mascot characters ''Kumamon'' (L) and ''Guriboo'' (R in back) of Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures attending the event.

Sanyo-Kyushu Shinkansen Line promotional campaign

Sanyo-Kyushu Shinkansen Line promotional campaign

OSAKA, Japan - Japanese television personality Suzanne, a native of Kumamoto Prefecture, encourages people to visit the prefecture at the launch of a campaign in Osaka on Oct. 1, 2010, to promote the Sanyo-Kyushu Shinkansen Line ahead of the start of operations in March next year.

'Next-generation' Shinkansen model on display

'Next-generation' Shinkansen model on display

HAMAMATSU, Japan - A new Shinkansen model, the ''next-generation'' N-700 Series, on display in a press preview at the JR Tokai Hamamatsu plant in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecutre on April 10. According to JR engineers, a key N-700 technical feature is that the train, through the use of air spring, can bend at curves so that it does not have to decelerate when passing through curving passages. The N-700 Series, which will run in the Tokaido Sanyo Shinkansen line, can speed through curves at a maximum speed of 270 kilometers per hour in the Tokaido sector and 300 kph in the Sanyo sector, they say. As a result, the N-700 Series can travel between Tokyo and the Shin-Osaka station in Osaka in 2 hours and 25 minutes, down 5 minutes, and between Tokyo and the Hakata station in Fukuoka in 4 hours and 50 minutes.

Service temporarily suspended on Kyushu, Sanyo Shinkansen lines

Service temporarily suspended on Kyushu, Sanyo Shinkansen lines

KAGOSHIMA, Japan - Workers remove mud from the tracks of the Kyushu Shinkansen Line in Kagoshima on July 7. Bullet train runs on the line were temporarily suspended after the tracks in front of a tunnel were found covered by a massive mudslide caused by heavy rainfalls.

Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train marks 30th anniversary

Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train marks 30th anniversary

OSAKA, Japan - A bullet train on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line leaves Shin-Osaka Station on March 10 after a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the opening of the line. The number of passengers on the line, which connects Osaka and Fukuoka, was 57 million in fiscal 2003.

JR West reports 621 false records on tunnel, bridge checks

JR West reports 621 false records on tunnel, bridge checks

OSAKA, Japan - West Japan Railway Co. executive Kenzo Tokuoka (front) apologizes in Osaka on July 6 after the company found 621 cases of fabrication of records in its documents since March 2000, most of them falsely suggesting that regular inspections of tunnels and bridges along the Sanyo Shinkansen Line and conventional train lines had been conducted.

(1)Tokyo's Shinagawa opens bullet train station

(1)Tokyo's Shinagawa opens bullet train station

TOKYO, Japan - Passengers walk into the main concourse of a new Shinkansen bullet train station which opened at JR Shinagawa Station in Tokyo on Oct. 1 Shinagawa lies between Tokyo and Shin-Yokohama on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line, which runs to Shin-Osaka and then continues to Hakata in Kyushu as the Sanyo Shinkansen Line. The station brings the number of bullet train stops in the capital to three, including Ueno, which serves northeastern Japan.

Piece of mortar found on Sanyo Shikansen tracks

Piece of mortar found on Sanyo Shikansen tracks

OGORI, Japan - Photo shows an 8-kilogram piece of mortar found Dec. 1 on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line bullet-train tracks inside a tunnel in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Tunnel inspectors found the fragment, which had apparently fallen from a 3-meter-high wall in the tunnel between Shin-Shimonoseki and Asa stations. No accidents were reported immediately.

Power outage halts morning Sanyo Shinkansen trains

Power outage halts morning Sanyo Shinkansen trains

KOBE, Japan - Passengers are stranded on a Shinkansen bullet train at JR Shin-Kobe Station March 7 as east-bound bullet train services between Shin-Kobe and Shin-Osaka stations on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line were temporarily disrupted due to a power supply failure.

Cracks discovered under Shinkansen cars

Cracks discovered under Shinkansen cars

FUKUOKA, Japan - A part attached to the truck of a Shinkansen train bears a crack on a welded spot. West Japan Railway Co. said May 14 it discovered the cracks on the trucks of its 500 Series Nozomi bullet trains which run on the Tokaido Sanyo Line. The problem was detected at 37 locations.

Sanyo Shinkansen tunnels declared safe

Sanyo Shinkansen tunnels declared safe

TOKYO Japan - Transport Minister Toshihiro Nikai on Dec. 16 in effect declares the tunnels on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line safe, on the basis of a report submitted earlier in the day by West Japan Railway Co. (JR West). The government ''has endorsed JR West's judgment on safety'' of the tunnels, he told a news conference.

JR West head gives instructions to tunnel inspectors

JR West head gives instructions to tunnel inspectors

OKAYAMA, Japan - Shojiro Nanya, president of West Japan Railway Co. (JR West), gives instructions to workers on the night of Nov. 12 before they start full-fledged inspections of tunnels on the Sanyo Shinkansen line linking Osaka with Fukuoka. JR West is inspecting all 142 tunnels along the line in an effort to prevent the recurrence of recent accidents in which concrete slabs fell from the wall of the Fukuoka and Kitakyushu tunnels, railway officials said.

Cracks found in window of Shinkansen bullet train

Cracks found in window of Shinkansen bullet train

TOKYO, Japan - Photo, taken at JR Tokyo Station, shows cracks found Nov. 8 on the glass window of a Shinkansen bullet-train car. The cracks were found on a Tokyo-bound train from Hakata, Kyushu, while it was passing between Fukuyama and Shin-Kurashiki stations on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line. It was the 2nd such incident in as many days and the 5th since Oct. 21 on the same line.

JR West's president speaks after inspecting tunnel

JR West's president speaks after inspecting tunnel

KITAKYUSHU, Japan - Shojiro Nanya, president of West Japan Railway Co. (JR West), speaks to reporters Oct. 16 at Kokura Station in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, after inspecting a tunnel on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line where a block of concrete weighing 226 kilograms fell from the wall Oct. 9.

JR West head vows to review tunnel inspection manuals

JR West head vows to review tunnel inspection manuals

OSAKA, Japan - The president of West Japan Railway Co. (JR West), Shojiro Nanya, speaks at a news conference at JR West's Osaka head office Oct. 10. He pledged to review JR West's tunnel inspection manuals in the wake of Saturday's fall of a large concrete block in the Kitakyushu Tunnel in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, on the Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train line linking Osaka with Fukuoka.

Big cement block falls in bullet-train tunnel

Big cement block falls in bullet-train tunnel

FUKUOKA, Japan - A big block of cement falls from the tunnel wall on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line in Fukuoka Prefecture, western Japan, causing a halt between Hakata and Hiroshima in the morning of Oct. 9. The block measuring about 3 meters in length, 50 centimeters in width and 20 cm in thickness was found in Kita-Kyushu Tunnel.

Travelers rush to bullet train as service resumes

Travelers rush to bullet train as service resumes

HIROSHIMA, Japan - Travelers get on a bullet train at Hiroshima Station on Oct. 9 as service resumed following a safety check in tunnels on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line linking Osaka with Fukuoka. A large block of concrete weighing 226 kilograms fell from the wall of a tunnel earlier in the day, halting bullet train services between Hiroshima and Hakata stations.

Bullet train stoppage caused by fallen concrete

Bullet train stoppage caused by fallen concrete

Photo shows a Hikari No. 351 bullet train whose roof was damaged by falling concrete June 27. The train on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line was passing through Fukuoka Tunnel in Hisayama, Fukuoka Prefecture, when the concrete damaged its pantographs, causing a temporary halt to services.

Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train marks 30th anniversary

Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train marks 30th anniversary

OSAKA, Japan - A bullet train on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line leaves Shin-Osaka Station on March 10 after a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the opening of the line. The number of passengers on the line, which connects Osaka and Fukuoka, was 57 million in fiscal 2003. (Kyodo)

Piece of mortar found on Sanyo Shikansen tracks

Piece of mortar found on Sanyo Shikansen tracks

OGORI, Japan - Photo shows an 8-kilogram piece of mortar found Dec. 1 on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line bullet-train tracks inside a tunnel in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Tunnel inspectors found the fragment, which had apparently fallen from a 3-meter-high wall in the tunnel between Shin-Shimonoseki and Asa stations. No accidents were reported immediately. (Kyodo)

Old "Hikari" Shinkansen bullet train in 1975

Old "Hikari" Shinkansen bullet train in 1975

The first "Hikari" Shinkansen bullet train of the Sanyo Shinkansen Line departs JR Hakata station in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, during a ceremony to mark the opening of the extended line in this file photo taken on March 10, 1975. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Sanyo Shinkansen Line marks 40th anniversary

Sanyo Shinkansen Line marks 40th anniversary

A Shinkansen bullet train departs JR Hakata station in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on March 10, 2015, during a ceremony to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the opening of the extended Sanyo Shinkansen Line. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Sanyo Shinkansen Line marks 40th anniversary

Sanyo Shinkansen Line marks 40th anniversary

A Shinkansen bullet train departs JR Hakata station in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on March 10, 2015, during a ceremony to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the opening of the extended Sanyo Shinkansen Line. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train line marks 40th anniv.

Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train line marks 40th anniv.

A 500 series Shinkansen bullet train (R) makes a stop at JR Shin-Kobe Station in Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, while a N700 series train passes by on March 8, 2015. The 40th anniversary of the opening of the whole Sanyo Shinkansen Line from Shin-Osaka to Hakata was marked on March 10. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Sanyo Shinkansen Line marks 40th anniversary

Sanyo Shinkansen Line marks 40th anniversary

A Shinkansen bullet train departs JR Hakata station in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on March 10, 2015, during a ceremony to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the opening of the extended Sanyo Shinkansen Line. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Old "Hikari" Shinkansen bullet train in 1975

Old "Hikari" Shinkansen bullet train in 1975

The first "Hikari" Shinkansen bullet train of the Sanyo Shinkansen Line departs JR Hakata station in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, during a ceremony to mark the opening of the extended line in this file photo taken on March 10, 1975. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Inside of "octor Yellow" bullet train unveiled to media

Inside of "octor Yellow" bullet train unveiled to media

"Doctor Yellow," a special bullet train that monitors the conditions of the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen routes from Tokyo to Hakata stations, arrives at the southwestern Japan station on Jan. 27, 2015. West Japan Railway Co. unveiled the inside of the train the same day as part of its campaign to celebrate the 40th anniversary in March of the Sanyo Shinkansen Line's completion of its entire route from Shin-Osaka in western Japan to Hakata. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Model plane crashes electrical wire for Shinkansen bullet trains

Model plane crashes electrical wire for Shinkansen bullet trains

Investigators (C) examine a model plane, which apparently crashed into an electrical wire used by bullet trains on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line, in the western Japanese city of Himeji on June 17, 2015. West Japan Railway Co. halted operations temporarily while removing the object. The operator said that the model plane was different from a drone. The photo was taken from a Kyodo News helicopter. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

'Next-generation' Shinkansen model on display

'Next-generation' Shinkansen model on display

HAMAMATSU, Japan - A new Shinkansen model, the ''next-generation'' N-700 Series, on display in a press preview at the JR Tokai Hamamatsu plant in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecutre on April 10. According to JR engineers, a key N-700 technical feature is that the train, through the use of air spring, can bend at curves so that it does not have to decelerate when passing through curving passages. The N-700 Series, which will run in the Tokaido Sanyo Shinkansen line, can speed through curves at a maximum speed of 270 kilometers per hour in the Tokaido sector and 300 kph in the Sanyo sector, they say. As a result, the N-700 Series can travel between Tokyo and the Shin-Osaka station in Osaka in 2 hours and 25 minutes, down 5 minutes, and between Tokyo and the Hakata station in Fukuoka in 4 hours and 50 minutes. (Kyodo)

Countdown board for Kyushu shinkansen operation in Osaka

Countdown board for Kyushu shinkansen operation in Osaka

OSAKA, Japan - A board counting down the days until the start of the Sanyo-Kyushu Shinkansen Line is unveiled at JR Shin-Osaka Station in Osaka on Oct. 13, 2010, with mascot characters ''Kumamon'' (L) and ''Guriboo'' (R in back) of Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures attending the event. (Kyodo)

Sanyo-Kyushu Shinkansen Line promotional campaign

Sanyo-Kyushu Shinkansen Line promotional campaign

OSAKA, Japan - Japanese television personality Suzanne, a native of Kumamoto Prefecture, encourages people to visit the prefecture at the launch of a campaign in Osaka on Oct. 1, 2010, to promote the Sanyo-Kyushu Shinkansen Line ahead of the start of operations in March next year. (Kyodo)

Nunobiki Falls

Nunobiki Falls

Medaki waterfall of Nunobiki Falls, taken around the same time as photographs #2814 and #4240 (mid-Meiji Period). Today, more than a century later, it takes only a few minutes to reach this waterfall from Shin Kobe Station (Sanyo Shinkansen Line). The road on the left is now closed and the wooden bridge has been rebuilt in concrete. Despite the passage of time, the beautiful scenes of the changing seasons can still be enjoyed today.==Date:unknown, Place:Kobe, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number56‐31‐2]

The entrance to Mt. Nunobiki

The entrance to Mt. Nunobiki

The entrance to Nunobiki Falls in the mid-Meiji Period. The path leads to Medaki (Female Waterfall) and Odaki (Male Waterfall). This is the current location of Shin Kobe Station (Sanyo Shinkansen Line) and New Kobe Oriental Hotel. This photograph was taken by the Yokohama photographer Kusakabe Kinbei. The number 1207 is visible on the lower left. The photograph from the original plate bore the caption 1207 NUNOBUKI YAMA KOBE. This is the same as photograph #4893.==Date:unknown, Place:Kobe, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number56‐27‐0]

Nunobiki Falls

Nunobiki Falls

This is Otaki Waterfall of Nunobiki. Many culturally enlightened people have visited here since ancient times as mentioned in the stories from Heian Period such as The Tale of Ise and The Tale of Prosperity. Nunobiki is located just a few hundred meters behind Shin Kobe Station of the Sanyo Shinkansen Line. It still has the atmosphere of a mystically deep mountain. Probably mid- Meiji Period.==Date:unknown, Place:Kobe, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number56‐16‐0]

The entrance to Mt. Nunobiki

The entrance to Mt. Nunobiki

View of the area near present-day Shin Kobe Station (Sanyo Shinkansen Line) and the New Kobe Oriental Hotel in Chuo Ward. Taken in the latter half of the Meiji Period. On the hillside to the left of the Takimichi (waterfall road) is a hot spring called Nunobiki Spa fed by boiling-hot, carbonated spring water from underground. There used to be many inns, restaurants, and teahouses along the road continuing from the northeast of Ikuta Shinto Shrine to this area. Many people visited here to enjoy the cool air during summer.==Date:unknown, Place:Kobe, Photo:unknown, (Credit:Nagasaki University Library/Kyodo News Images) [Cabinet Number56‐13‐0]

Retired shinkansen train

Retired shinkansen train

TOKYO, Japan - Members of a family have fun around a 0 series shinkansen bullet train displayed at the SCMAGLEV and Railway Park museum in Nagoya on Dec. 5, 2011. The original 0 series trains were put into operation when the Tokaido Shinkansen Line opened in 1964. They ran on the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen lines and retired in 2008. (Kyodo)

New shinkansen bullet train

New shinkansen bullet train

Photo taken July 1, 2020, shows an N700S shinkansen bullet train making its maiden run in Oiso, Kanagawa Prefecture, eastern Japan. The fully remodeled bullet train for the Tokaido and Sanyo shinkansen line, the first in 13 years, came into service between Tokyo and Hakata in southwestern Japan on the same day. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

New shinkansen bullet train

New shinkansen bullet train

Photo taken July 1, 2020, shows an N700S shinkansen bullet train making its maiden run in Oiso, Kanagawa Prefecture, eastern Japan. The fully remodeled bullet train for the Tokaido and Sanyo shinkansen line, the first in 13 years, came into service between Tokyo and Hakata in southwestern Japan on the same day. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

New shinkansen bullet train

New shinkansen bullet train

Photo taken July 1, 2020, shows an N700S shinkansen bullet train making its maiden run in Oiso, Kanagawa Prefecture, eastern Japan. The fully remodeled bullet train for the Tokaido and Sanyo shinkansen line, the first in 13 years, came into service between Tokyo and Hakata in southwestern Japan on the same day. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

JR West reports 621 false records on tunnel, bridge checks

JR West reports 621 false records on tunnel, bridge checks

OSAKA, Japan - West Japan Railway Co. executive Kenzo Tokuoka (front) apologizes in Osaka on July 6 after the company found 621 cases of fabrication of records in its documents since March 2000, most of them falsely suggesting that regular inspections of tunnels and bridges along the Sanyo Shinkansen Line and conventional train lines had been conducted. (Kyodo)

(1)Tokyo's Shinagawa opens bullet train station

(1)Tokyo's Shinagawa opens bullet train station

TOKYO, Japan - Passengers walk into the main concourse of a new Shinkansen bullet train station which opened at JR Shinagawa Station in Tokyo on Oct. 1 Shinagawa lies between Tokyo and Shin-Yokohama on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line, which runs to Shin-Osaka and then continues to Hakata in Kyushu as the Sanyo Shinkansen Line. The station brings the number of bullet train stops in the capital to three, including Ueno, which serves northeastern Japan. (Kyodo)

Power outage halts morning Sanyo Shinkansen trains

Power outage halts morning Sanyo Shinkansen trains

KOBE, Japan - Passengers are stranded on a Shinkansen bullet train at JR Shin-Kobe Station March 7 as east-bound bullet train services between Shin-Kobe and Shin-Osaka stations on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line were temporarily disrupted due to a power supply failure.