[12] 'Farewell' specials scheduled by JNR often attracted railfans[13] and the popularity of steam locomotives during the SL Boom even led to instances of them being put back into service especially for densha otaku, such as on the Koumi Line in 1973.

[15] Since being first introduced at Shinjuku and Shibuya stations in 1989[16] eki-melo have become popular amongst densha otaku,[17] with one composer Minoru Mukaiya regularly drawing large crowds to his recitals of them.

[20] In January 2016 Chinese state broadcaster CCTV News featured a story about a rural station in Hokkaido that was remaining open for the use of a single local schoolgirl until she had finished her studies.

[27] While densha otaku has typically been regarded as a male dominated subculture,[28] in the early twenty-first century there has been an increasing number of female railfans known as tetsuko (鉄子).

[32] Other celebrities such as Rina Akiyama, who since starring in the television programme Kamen Rider Den-O narrated by Kenjirō Ishimaru, have been credited with broadening the gender appeal of the densha otaku subculture.

Further influences include the railway inspired hip-hop group Super Bell"Z who, in 2002, used recordings of the Yamanote Line in a track which became popular among female railfans in Japan.

[34] In 2017 the city of Kudamatsu publicised the route a newly built Class 800 would take through the town on its way to be shipped to the United Kingdom in order to attract densha otaku tourists to the area.

[35] In 2021 JR East launched Mechu, a subscription based social media platform styled on Twitch, for densha otaku aimed at capitalising on the increasing popularity of the subculture.

[42] In April 2021 a violent altercation between two toritetsu taking pictures of a specially scheduled train at Nishi-Kawaguchi railway station resulted in a victim acquiring a fractured skull and the subsequent arrest of a teenage suspect two days later.

[45][46] In January and June 2023 trespassing incidents involving densha otaku occurred in Numazu and Yaita respectively, the latter forcing a train on the Utsunomiya Line to make an emergency stop.

[34] In June 2023 in response to residents' complaints against toritetsu gathering in Hino to photograph the Yakumo train, JR West enacted patrols of the area alongside local police.

[34] On November 13, 2023, a densha otaku who had well known presence on social media, made an arson threat on Twitter after being issued a fine on the JR East Takasaki branch for fare evasion.