Japanese Government Railways

Japanese Government Railways
Company information
Type	State-owned railway
Industry	Transportation
Products	Rail transport
Headquarters	Tokyo, Japan
Areas served	Japan
History
Founded	19 April 1870
Founder(s)	Government of Japan
Defunct	1 June 1949
Fate	Reorganized
Successor(s)	Japanese National Railways

The Japanese Government Railways (Japanese: 国有鉄道 Kokuyū Tetsudō), officially abbreviated as JGR, was the national railway system operated by the Ministry of Railways (Japanese: 鉄道省 Tetsudō Shō) from 1872 to 1949. While officially the Japanese Governmental Railways specifically refers to the railway system operated by the Ministry of Railways from 1920 to 1941, this article will also cover the history of the railways operated by the Imperial Japanese Government prior to the forming of the JGR.

History

Development for a railway system in Japan commenced not long after the country opened its borders to formal international contact after a 250-year long shogunate-imposed isolation for Japan to achieve rapid modernization. Although there were a number of plans for the manufacture of a railway system in Japan started by the shogunate and other parties, none of them came to fruition.

The first railway line in Japan, the Tokyo-Yokohama Railway, operated by the Civil and Finance Ministry, was created by the Japanese government financing 300 British and European technical advisors through contracts, including civil engineers, locomotive builders, general managers and drivers; the idea was that these foreign experts would provide advice and educate Japanese co-workers to allow them to become self-sufficient in the expertise of railway construction, at which point the foreign engineers were expected to leave the country. British engineer Edmund Morel was instrumental in the construction of the line. The line, ferrying passengers between Shimbashi and Yokohama Stations (now Shiodome and Sakuragichō Stations) opened on 14 October 1872; this day is commemorated with Railway Day in Japan on 14 October each year.

A line from Kobe to Osaka would be constructed next in 1874; this would be extended to Kyoto in 1877 and Ōtsu in 1880. American engineer Joseph Crowford supervised the construction of a coal mining railway in Hokkaido in 1880, while German engineer Herrmann Rumschöttel supervised construction on a railway in Kyushu from 1887 to 1889. Linking Tokyo with Nagoya and Kyoto became the next priority, with the Nippon Railway being granted a concession to what would become the Tōhoku Main Line, with construction completed by the government at the company's expense. The Nippon Railway also financed the construction of a new line linking the previous Tokyo-Yokohama line from Akabane to Shinagawa via Shinjuku; this was the first section of what would become the Yamanote Line, now one of Tokyo's most important lines. Further construction and expansion of the other lines would commence, with the Tōhoku Main Line reaching Sendai in 1887 and Aomori in 1891.

Construction of yet another line paralleling the Sea of Japan would commence, becoming what would become the Tōkaidō Main Line; construction was approved in 1886, with the line becoming one of Japan's most important rail lines. In 1888, the Sanyo Railway was granted a charter to construct what would become the San'yō Main Line from Kobe to Shimonoseki, with the Kyushu Railway building a line from Hakata to Kumamoto from 1889 to 1891; this line would connect with Shimonoseki in 1901. The Japanese Army had also requested some lines be built to ensure that routes with military significance be given priority; a set of priority routes was created in 1892 through the Railway Construction Act. What would become the Chūō Main Line, Ōu Main Line, Hokuriku Main Line, Shinonoi Line, Nippō Main Line and Hisatsu Line would result from the act. In 1893, the first domestically built steam locomotive, No. 221, would be produced, under the supervision of Richard Francis Trevithick, the grandson of Richard Trevithick who was working as a supervisor at JNR at the time.

With the military expressing concern about delays in troop movements due to a mix of private and government railway operators operating Japan's rail network, a decision was made to nationalize 42 railway companies in Japan; this came to fruition in 1906, although only seventeen companies were ultimately nationalized. Many steam locomotives until this time were imported from Europe or the United States, with importations slowed significantly after 1912 with the JGR turning to have their own steam locomotives built domestically; the last steam locomotives were imported from overseas in 1925. The Ministry of Railways would be established on 15 May 1920, with the nationalized railways coming under the moniker of the Japanese Government Railways.

With the onset of World War II the railways came under military control. The government also decided to unify private railways into larger blocs, creating companies such as the Tokyu Kyuko Electric Railway and the Kinki-Nippon Railway. By 1943, civilian passenger service was reduced, and military service was prioritized; in 1944, all limited express, dining cars, first class cars and sleeper cars were abolished, with railway operators also forced to remove one track from double track lines or cease operations under the Ordinance for Collection of Metals in an attempt to satisfy the military's needs for steel.

The war resulted in heavy damage to the Japanese rail network; the worst case was in Okinawa, which lost all its railways until the Okinawa Urban Monorail was opened in 2003. In most cases, operations of the railways resumed fairly quickly, even after heavy bombings; despite this it took several years for the railways to fully recover. With Japan's defeat, a lack of materials led to a lack of maintenance for facilities and an increase in passengers due to people buying wholesale. Priority was given to Allied Personnel Only trains operated for the U.S. General HQ under General Douglas MacArthur. On 1 June 1949, under a directive from the National Diet by the General HQ, the JGR was reorganized as the Japanese National Railways and development of the Japanese rail network would flourish.

Heads

Name	Term start	Term end
Ministry of Industry
Masaru Inoue	15 August 1871	22 July 1873
Sukemasa Ōta	22 July 1873	19 January 1877
Masaru Inoue	19 January 1877	28 December 1885
Cabinet of Japan
Masaru Inoue	28 December 1885	6 September 1890
Home Ministry
Masaru Inoue	6 September 1890	21 July 1892
Ministry of Communications
Masaru Inoue	21 July 1892	16 March 1893
Sōichirō Matsumoto	16 March 1893	18 December 1897
Daisuke Suzuki	18 December 1897	17 January 1898
Kenjirō Den	17 January 1898	2 March 1898
Tokugorō Nakahashi	2 March 1898	13 July 1898
Daihachi Itō	13 July 1898	28 November 1898
Kōi Furuichi	28 November 1898	7 April 1899
Katsutarō Inuzuka	7 April 1899	22 April 1904
Kazuji Yamanouchi	22 April 1904	5 December 1908
Imperial Railway Agency
Seijirō Hirai	1 April 1907	5 December 1908
Railway Bureau
Shinpei Gotō	5 December 1908	30 August 1911
Takashi Hara	31 August 1911	21 December 1912
Shinpei Gotō	21 December 1912	20 February 1913
Takejirō Tokonami	20 February 1913	16 April 1914
Mitsugi Sengoku	16 April 1914	3 September 1915
Juichi Soyeda	3 September 1915	6 October 1916
Shinpei Gotō	6 October 1916	23 April 1918
Lord Yoshikoto Nakamura	23 April 1918	29 September 1918
Takejirō Tokonami	29 September 1918	15 May 1920
Ministry of Railways
Hajime Motoda	15 May 1920	12 June 1922
Enkichi Ōki	12 June 1922	2 September 1923
Ichiji Yamanouchi	2 September 1923	7 January 1924
Kenjirō Komatsu	7 January 1924	11 June 1924
Mitsugi Sengoku	11 June 1924	3 June 1926
Tadashirō Inoue	3 June 1926	20 April 1927
Heikichi Ogawa	20 April 1927	2 July 1929
Tasuku Egi	2 July 1929	10 September 1931
Shūjirō Hara	10 September 1931	13 December 1931
Takejirō Tokonami	13 December 1931	26 May 1932
Chūzō Mitsuchi	26 May 1932	8 July 1934
Nobuya Uchida	8 July 1934	9 March 1936
Yonezō Maeda	9 March 1936	2 February 1937
Takuo Godō	2 February 1937	4 June 1937
Chikuhei Nakajima	4 June 1937	5 January 1939
Yonezō Maeda	5 January 1939	30 August 1939
Ryūtarō Nagai	30 August 1939	29 November 1939
Hidejirō Nagata	29 November 1939	16 January 1940
Tsuruhei Matsuno	16 January 1940	22 July 1940
Shōzō Murata	22 July 1940	28 September 1940
Gōtarō Ogawa	28 September 1940	18 July 1941
Shōzō Murata	18 July 1941	18 October 1941
Ken Terajima	18 October 1941	2 December 1941
Yoshiaki Hatta	2 December 1941	1 November 1943
Ministry of Transport and Communications
Yoshiaki Hatta	1 November 1943	19 February 1944
Keita Gotō	19 February 1944	22 July 1944
Yonezō Maeda	22 July 1944	7 April 1945
Teijirō Toyoda	7 April 1945	9 April 1945
Naoto Kobiyama	9 April 1945	19 May 1945
Ministry of Transport
Eisaku Satō	19 May 1945	20 March 1948
Shigejirō Inō	20 March 1948	30 April 1948
Sadanori Shimoyama	30 April 1948	1 June 1949
Reorganized into Japanese National Railways

Trivia

• It is not clear why 3 ft 6 in gauge (Cape gauge) was selected as the de facto gauge in Japan; some claim that this gauge was supposedly cheaper than standard gauge (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in), but it is more likely that Morel's experience in building railways to this gauge in New Zealand was a factor in this choice.
• JGR's image song is titled the Railway Spirit Song, released in 1934 and performed and arranged by Saburo Tanooka and the "Railroad Choir". This song was also used as the image song of the JNR.