Japan Railways Group

[3] 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.

While division of operations began in April of that year, privatization was not immediate: initially, the government retained ownership of the companies.

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

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.

Passengers may travel across several JR companies without changing trains and without purchasing separate tickets.

JR logotype
JR Group service regions
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.
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.