Japan Railways Group

The Japan Railways Group, more commonly known as the JR Group (JRグループ, Jeiāru Gurūpu) or simply JR, is a group of railway companies in Japan that underwent division and privatization^[1] of the government-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR) on April 1, 1987. It consists of six passenger railway companies, one freight railway company, and two non-service companies. Most of the liability of the JNR was assumed by the JNR Settlement Corporation.

The JR Group operates a large proportion of intercity rail service (including the Shinkansen high-speed rail lines) and commuter rail service.

JR Hokkaido, JR Shikoku, and JR Freight (JRF) are governed by the Act for the Passenger Railway Companies and Japan Freight Railway Company [ja]^[2], also known as the JR Companies Act, and are under the control of the public Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency (JRTT), while JR East, JR Central, JR West, and JR Kyushu are completely floated in the stock market; in addition, JR East, JR Central and JR West are constituents of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX 100 indices. Because the railways used to be owned by the government, Japanese people generally make a distinction between JR railways (including former JR lines that are now third sector) and other private railways, and JR railways are almost always denoted differently from other private railways when shown on maps.^[3]

Background

JR Central Tōkaidō Shinkansen arriving at Kyoto Station

JR West ticket machines

A JR West 223 series train arriving in Osaka station

The COVID-19 pandemic in Japan abruptly reduced passenger railway ridership in 2020, which has been increasing since 1960.

By the 1970s, passenger and freight business had declined, and fare increases had failed to keep up with higher labor costs.^[4]

The JR Group companies were formed out of the privatization of the Japanese National Railways in 1987.^[5]^[6]

Ownership

In 1987, the Japanese government divided JNR into 12 legal entities. By October 2016, JR East, JR Central, JR West and JR Kyushu had completed privatization. JR Hokkaido, JR Shikoku and JR Freight are still state-owned.

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 of the state.

All the JR Group companies operating in the Honshū region are constituents of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX 100 indexes.

Companies

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JR group's main offices and branch offices

Hokkaido East Central
West Shikoku Kyushu

(JR Freight, JRTT, and JR Systems are omitted)

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 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 Nagoya and Kanazawa, for instance, uses JR West rolling stock but the segment of track between Nagoya and Maibara is owned by JR Central, whose crew manage the train on that section.

Japan Freight Railway Company operates all freight service on the network previously owned by JNR.

In addition, the group includes two non-operating companies. These are the Railway Technical Research Institute 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".

Business	Logo and color	Company	Type	Traded as	Region(s) of operation	Note
Passenger	Grass	Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido)	Kabushiki gaisha	Not listed Owned by JRTT	Hokkaidō	operates Hokkaidō Shinkansen in Hokkaido
	Forest	East Japan Railway Company (JR East)		TYO: 9020 Nikkei 225 component TOPIX Large70 component	Tōhoku, Kantō, Hokuriku, Kōshin'etsu	operates Tōhoku Shinkansen, Yamagata Shinkansen, Akita Shinkansen, Jōetsu Shinkansen and Hokuriku Shinkansen (with JR West)
	Pumpkin	Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central)		TYO: 9022 NAG: 9022 Nikkei 225 component (TYO) TOPIX Large70 component (TYO)	Chūbu (including Tōkai, its Japanese eponym)	operates Tōkaidō Shinkansen in Kantō and Kansai
	Ocean	West Japan Railway Company (JR West)		TYO: 9021 Nikkei 225 component TOPIX Large70 component	Hokuriku, Kansai, Chūgoku, Kyūshū	operates Sanyō Shinkansen in Kansai, Chūgoku and Kyushu and Hokuriku Shinkansen (with JR East) in Hokuriku
	Sky	Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku)		Not listed Owned by JRTT	Shikoku
	Scarlet	Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu)		TYO: 9142 FSE: 9142	Kyūshū	operates Kyūshū Shinkansen in Kyūshū
Freight	Slate	Japan Freight Railway Company (JR Freight)		Not listed Owned by JRTT	Nationwide
IT Services	Burgundy	Railway Information Systems Co., Ltd. [ja] (JR Systems)		Not listed Owned by the 7 railway companies above^[7]	Nationwide	develops, operates and manages computer systems, including MARS (ticket reservation system)^[8]
Research & Development	Lavender	Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI)	Kōeki zaidan hōjin [ja]	A non-profit organization funded by the 7 railway companies above^[9]	Nationwide	conducts research and development of railway-related technologies, such as SCMaglev^[9]

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 (jointly developed with Hitachi). Some types of tickets (passes), such as Japan Rail Pass and Seishun 18 Ticket, are issued as "valid for all JR lines" and accepted by all passenger JR companies.