# East Japan Railway Company

The East Japan Railway Company is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as JR Higashi-Nihon (JR東日本, Jeiāru Higashi-Nihon, lit. 'JR East Japan') in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, next to Shinjuku Station. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange (it formerly had secondary listings in the Nagoya and Osaka stock exchanges), is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and is one of three Japan Railways Group constituents of the Nikkei 225 index, the others being JR Central and JR West.

## History

JR East was incorporated on 1 April 1987 after being spun off from the government-run Japanese National Railways (JNR). The spin-off was nominally "privatization", as the company was actually a wholly owned subsidiary of the government-owned JNR Settlement Corporation for several years, and was not completely sold to the public until 2002.
Following the breakup, JR East ran the operations on former JNR lines in the Greater Tokyo Area, the Tōhoku region, and surrounding areas.

## Lines

Railway lines of JR East primarily serve the Kanto and Tohoku regions, along with adjacent areas in Kōshin'etsu region (Niigata, Nagano, Yamanashi) and Shizuoka prefectures.

### Shinkansen

* JR East operates all of the Shinkansen high-speed rail lines north of Tokyo, with the exception of the Hokkaido Shinkansen which is operated by JR Hokkaido.
* Tōhoku Shinkansen (Tokyo - Shin-Aomori)
* Jōetsu Shinkansen (Tokyo - Niigata; Echigo-Yuzawa - Gala Yuzawa)
* Hokuriku Shinkansen (jointly operated with JR West) (Tokyo - Jōetsumyōkō)
* Yamagata Shinkansen (Tokyo - Shinjo)
* Akita Shinkansen (Tokyo - Akita)
* The Tokyo–Osaka Tōkaidō Shinkansen is owned and operated by the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central), although it stops at several JR East stations.

### Kanto region

These lines have sections inside the Tokyo suburban area (Japanese: 東京近郊区間) designated by JR East. This does not necessarily mean that the lines are fully inside the Greater Tokyo Area.
* ■ Agatsuma Line (Shibukawa - Ōmae)
* CO Chūō Main Line (Tokyo - Shiojiri)
* JC Chūō Rapid Line (Tokyo - Ōtsuki)
* JB Chūō-Sōbu Line (Mitaka - Chiba)
* ■ Hachikō Line (Hachiōji - Kuragano)
* JT Itō Line (Atami - Ajiro - Itō)
* JC Itsukaichi Line (Haijima - Musashi-Itsukaichi)
* JJ JL Jōban Line (Ueno - Iwaki)
* ■ Jōetsu Line (Takasaki - Minakami)
* ■ Karasuyama Line (Hōshakuji - Ōgane - Karasuyama)
* ■ Kashima Line (Katori - Kashima Soccer Stadium)
* ■ ■ Kawagoe Line (Ōmiya - Komagawa)
* JK Keihin–Tōhoku Line (Ōmiya - Yokohama)
* JE Keiyō Line (Tokyo - Soga; Ichikawa-Shiohama - Nishi-Funabashi; Minami-Funabashi - Nishi-Funabashi)
* ■ Kururi Line (Kisarazu - Kazusa-Kameyama)
* ■ Mito Line (Oyama - Tomobe)
* JM Musashino Line (Fuchū-Hommachi - Nishi-Funabashi) (Tokyo outer loop)
* JN Nambu Line (Kawasaki - Tachikawa; Shitte - Hamakawasaki)
* ■ Narita Line (Sakura - Chōshi; Abiko - Narita; Narita - Narita Airport)
* JK Negishi Line (Yokohama - Ōfuna)
* ■ Nikkō Line (Utsunomiya - Nikkō)
* JC Ōme Line (Tachikawa - Okutama)
* ■ Ryōmō Line (Oyama - Shin-Maebashi)
* ■ Sagami Line (Hashimoto - Chigasaki)
* JA Saikyō Line (Ōsaki - Ōmiya)
* JS Shōnan–Shinjuku Line (Shin-Maebashi - Odawara; Utsunomiya - Zushi)
* ■ Sōbu Main Line (Chiba - Chōshi)
* ■ Sotobō Line (Chiba - Awa-Kamogawa)
* JU Takasaki Line (Ōmiya - Takasaki)
* ■ Tōgane Line (Narutō - Ōami)
* JU Tōhoku Main Line (Utsunomiya Line) (Ueno - Kuroiso)
* JT Tōkaidō Main Line (Tokyo - Atami)
* JI Tsurumi Line (Tsurumi - Ōgimachi; Anzen - Ōkawa; Asano - Umi-Shibaura)
* ■ Uchibō Line (Soga - Awa-Kamogawa)
* ■ Ueno–Tokyo Line (Maebashi - Numazu; Utsunomiya - Numazu; Atami - Itō; Takahagi - Shinagawa; Narita - Abiko)
* JY Yamanote Line (Loop line)
* JH Yokohama Line (Higashi-Kanagawa - Hachiōji)
* JO Yokosuka Line (Tokyo - Kurihama)

### Koshinetsu region

* ■ Chūō Main Line (Nirasaki - Shiojiri; Okaya - Midoriko Siojiri)
* ■ Echigo Line (Niigata - Kashiwazaki)
* ■ Hakushin Line (Niigata - Shibata)
* ■ Iiyama Line (Toyono - Echigo-Kawaguchi)
* ■ Joetsu Line (Minakami - Miyauchi; Echigo-Yuzawa - Gala-Yuzawa)
* ■ Koumi Line (Kobuchizawa - Komoro)
* ■ Oito Line (Matsumoto - Minami-Otari)
* ■ Shinetsu Main Line (Takasaki - Yokokawa; Shinonoi - Niigata)
* ■ Shinonoi Line (Shinonoi - Shiojiri)
* ■ Yahiko Line (Higashi-Sanjo - Yahiko)

### Tohoku region

* ■ Aterazawa Line (Kita-Yamagata - Aterazawa)
* ■ Ban'etsu East Line (Iwaki - Koriyama)
* ■ Ban'etsu West Line (Koriyama - Niitsu)
* ■ Gonō Line (Higashi-Noshiro - Kawabe)
* ■ Hachinohe Line (Hachinohe - Kuji)
* ■ Hanawa Line (Odate - Koma)
* ■ Ishinomaki Line (Kogota - Onagawa)
* ■ Jōban Line (Iwaki - Iwanuma)
* ■ Kamaishi Line (Hanamaki - Kamaishi)
* ■ Kesennuma Line (Maeyachi - Kesennuma)
* ■ Kitakami Line (Kitakami - Yokote)
* ■ Ofunato Line (Ichinoseki - Sakari)
* ■ Oga Line (Oiwake - Oga)
* ■ Ominato Line (Noheji - Ominato)
* ■ Ōu Main Line (Fukushima - Aomori) (Yamagata Line, Fukushima - Shinjō)
* ■ Rikuu East Line (Kogota - Shinjo)
* ■ Rikuu West Line (Shinjo - Amarume)
* ■ Senseki Line (Aobadori - Ishinomaki)
* ■ Senseki-Tōhoku Line
* ■ Senzan Line (Sendai - Uzen-Chitose)
* ■ Suigun Line (Mito - Asaka-Nagamori; Kamisugaya - Hitachi-Ota)
* ■ Tadami Line (Aizu-Wakamatsu - Koide)
* ■ Tazawako Line (Morioka - Ōmagari)
* ■ Tohoku Main Line (Kuroiso - Morioka; Iwakiri - Rifu)
* ■ Tsugaru Line (Aomori - Mimmaya)
* ■ Uetsu Main Line (Niitsu - Akita)
* ■ Yamada Line (Morioka - Miyako)
* ■ Yonesaka Line (Yonezawa - Sakamachi)

## Services

Below is the full list of limited express and express train services operated on JR East lines as of 2022.

### Shinkansen

* Asama
* Hakutaka
* Hayabusa
* Hayate
* Kagayaki
* Komachi
* Nasuno
* Tanigawa
* Toki
* Tsubasa
* Yamabiko

### Limited express (daytime)

* Kusatsu
* Akagi
* Azusa
* Fuji Excursion
* Hitachi and Tokiwa
* Inaho
* Kaiji/View Kaiji
* Kusatsu
* Narita Express
* Nikkō and Kinugawa
* Saphir Odoriko/Odoriko
* Sazanami
* Shirayuki
* Shiosai
* Shōnan
* Tsugaru
* Wakashio

### Limited express (overnight)

* Sunrise Izumo/Sunrise Seto (not operated by JR East, operated by JR Central and JR-West over the Tokaido Main Line, part of which JR East owns between Tokyo and Atami)

## Stations

During fiscal 2017, the busiest stations in the JR East network by average daily passenger count were:
* Shinjuku Station (778,618)
* Ikebukuro Station (566,516)
* Tokyo Station (452,549)
* Yokohama Station (420,192)
* Shinagawa Station (378,566)
* Shibuya Station (370,669)
* Shimbashi Station (277,404)
* Omiya Station (255,147)
* Akihabara Station (250,251)
* Kita-Senju Station (217,838)

## Subsidiaries

* Higashi-Nihon Kiosk - provides newspapers, drinks and other items in station kiosks and operates the Newdays convenience store chain
* JR Bus Kanto / JR Bus Tohoku - intercity bus operators
* Nippon Restaurant Enterprise - provides bentō box lunches on trains and in train stations
* Tokyo Monorail - (70% ownership stake)
* East Japan Marketing & Communications

## Sponsorship

JR East co-sponsors the JEF United Chiba J-League football club, which was formed by a merger between the JR East and Furukawa Electric company teams.

## Carbon emission plan

JR East aims to reduce its carbon emissions by half, as measured over the period 1990–2030. This would be achieved by increasing the efficiency of trains and company-owned thermal power stations and by developing hybrid trains.

## Alleged revolutionary front

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has stated that JR East's official union is a front for a revolutionary political organization called the Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction). An investigation of this is ongoing.

## Culture foundation

The East Japan Railway Culture Foundation is a non-profit organization established by JR East for the purpose of developing a "richer railway culture". The Railway Museum in Saitama is operated by the foundation.

## Bids outside Japan

JR East held a 15% shareholding in West Midlands Trains with Abellio and Mitsui that commenced operating the West Midlands franchise in England in December 2017. JR East sold their stake to Abellio in September 2021. The same consortium were also listed to be bidding for the South Eastern franchise.