Japanese Railway History

Japanese Railway History 7

Development of Large Cities andProgress in Railway Transportation

The Japanese economy achieved sharp
growth in its heavy and chemical industries after WWI. Tokyo, Osaka and otherbig cities saw a marked concentration ofwealth and population, leading to rapid
expansion of urban areas. By the mid1920s, the population of the Tokyo metropolitan area had already topped 4.1
million. It was against such a backdropthat railways in cities underwent both
qualitative development as a means ofurban transportation and rapid expansionof networks between the 1920s and early
1930s.
The trunk line network of the national railway constituted the basic framework of
the railway transportation in Tokyo. TheTokyo municipal government operated
trams running inside the city of Tokyo,
while private railway operators complemented the national railway by developing their routes from the edge of downtown areas to suburbs. Development inurban transportation functions of the national railway has already been touched
upon in the previous article in this series.
National railway urban train routes continued to be extended and played a central role in encouraging the developmentof railway transportation in Tokyo. Among
private railway operators, considerable
progress was seen in those companies
building new routes to the suburbs. Operators still using steam locomotives
adopted electric trains, strongly influenced by expanding electrification of thenational railways. These private operators included Tobu Railway Co. (startedbusiness in 1899, and electrified in 1924)
and Musashino Railway (began operationin 1915, electrified in 1922, and is currently Seibu Railway Co.).
The electric railways were originally laidout based on tram specifications and ran
along roads to suburbs. They developed
into a rapid transit system with improvements in rails, enlargement of numbers ofrolling stock as well as use of elevated orunderground lines near the termini.

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Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1996

Shinichi Kato
Among such operators were Keihin Electric Express Railway (started services between Shinagawa and Yokohama in 1905
and is now Keihin Electric Express Railway Co.), Keisei Electric Tramways (started
operation in 1912 and is now Keisei Electric Railway Co.) and Keio Electric Tramways (started operation in 1913 and isnow Keio Teito Electric Railway Co.).
There were newcomers as well. MeguroKamata Electric Railways (currently TokyuCorporation) started business in 1923 anddeveloped its network in the southwest
part of Tokyo partly by merging withneighbouring operators. Odawara Express Railway (currently Odakyu ElectricRailway) opened the entire 82.5-km route
between Tokyo (Shinjuku) and Odawarain 1927. Another 94.5 kilometers from
Tokyo to Nikko was opened by Tobu Railway Co. Of the new networks, the partwithin a 30-km radius of Tokyo station canbe considered Tokyo urban transportation.
The standards of facilities owned by theprivate railway companies were generally
lower than those of the national railway,
so the latter played a vital role in the transportation market.
In Osaka, although the national railway
formed the backbone of railway transportation from the initial stages, the transportation market of cities such as Kobe (30km from Osaka), and Kyoto (45 km fromOsaka) was different structurally from Tokyo. Private railway operators were already developing interurban type transit
systems. Such companies included
Hanshin Electric Railway (opened a route
between Osaka and Kobe in 1905),
Keihan Electric Railway Co. (started services between Osaka and Kyoto in 1910),
Osaka Electric Tramways (began businessin 1914 and is now Kinki Nippon Railway Co.) and Hanshin Electric Express
Railway (started services between Osakaand Kobe in 1920 and is now HankyuCorporation). Nankai Railway (nowNankai Electric Railway Co.) had used

Due to copyright issues, the original photo cannot be shown.

Shinkeihan Railway Series D100(Hankyu Corporation)

Copyright © 1996 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

steam locomotives since its establishment
in 1885, but electrified in 1907. These
private companies, which competed withrather than complemented the nationalrailway, maintained high standards fromthe start. But as they were actively engaged in promoting higher-speed electrictrains, they consequently enjoyed muchhigher standards than their counterpartsin Tokyo. Osaka, like Tokyo, also saw
some newcomers in the railway business,including Shinkeihan Railway (establishedin 1928 and later merged with Hanshin
Electric Express Railway), Hanwa Electric
Railway (opened in 1930 and later nationalized) and Sangu Electric Express Railway (opened in 1931 and now Kinki
Nippon Railway). They operated highspeed trains incorporating state-of-the-art
technologies for the time. Some evenoutperformed the national railway.

Formation of Urban
Private Railway ManagementPrivate railway companies operating on
the outskirts of Tokyo and Osaka attempted to diversify their management inorder to stimulate passenger transportation demand. They looked at businessareas closely related to urban life, suchas development and sale of residential
land along their lines, construction andoperation of department stores and development of tourist sites along the routes aswell as inducement of passengers to thosesites. A typical example of systematic diversification was seen in the approachtaken by Osaka’s Hanshin Electric Express
Railway (now Hankyu Corporation). The
company initially developed and sold residential areas in the suburbs of Osaka withthe aim of securing passengers for its first
railway route. Then, it began runningzoos, sports arenas, theatres and otheramusement facilities. Furthermore, a business that started with a small-scale restaurant in its station building at Osaka,later grew, and, as station buildings wereCopyright © 1996 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

expanded and improved, shops increased.
In 1929, the company eventually started
operating Hankyu Department Store. All
these developments, which served as arole model for diversification of private
railway business management, were led
by Ichizo Kobayashi, who had headed thecompany since its establishment. In Tokyo, Keita Goto, the president of Meguro
Kamata Electric Railways (currently TokyuCorporation), learned directly from
Kobayashi about management methods
and implemented them in his own
company’s diversification. One of themost characteristic aspects of Goto’s approach was how the company attracted
universities and other educational institutions originally located in the urban
centres to areas along its railway routes.
However, for a majority of operators, therailway business was still the mainstay of
total revenues. It was only after WWII
that the pattern of so-called Japanese-typeurban private railways featuring diversified management took shape.
Most significant among the different businesses of the private railway operators
were department-store operations andresidential land development. It is common practice for urban private railway
companies to construct buildings accommodating station facilities as well as department stores or retail shops in the upper floors. This pattern has been sustained
into modern times, and owning a department store is something like a status symbol for urban private railway companies.
The mainstream Japanese department
stores at that time had always been affiliated with major commercial business dating back to the Edo Period (1603 to 1868)and mainly catered to upscale markets.
But the newcomers associated with private railway companies targeted the general mass market and came to constitutea second force in the industry, still maintaining that position today. Private railway companies also played a large rolein development of residential land in Ja-(Transportation Museum)■ Ichizo Kobayashi (1873-1957)
Ichizo Kobayashi was the founder of thepresent Hankyu Corporation and was oneof the leading executives of the private
railway industry in Japan. As an energetic innovative president, Kobayashi
contributed to the progress of railway
management as a service industry during the period when the urban private
railways were taking shape after mainline railways came under ownership ofthe national government. As describedin the main text, he promoted land development, department store operation,
tourist site development, etc., in relation
to the mainstay railway business, thereby
creating a management style for Japanese urban private railways. His talent
for writing (he once wished to be a novelist) as well as his skills in public relations and advertising, helped his appeal
to the public. Among the variety of company businesses, a girls’ opera troupe,
which attracted spectators along the railway lines, is uniquely recognized worldwide and still enjoys nationwide popularity. The company’s film and theatre
division, which evolved from the opera
troupe, is a major player in the industry
in Japan. Kobayashi’s competence incorporate management brought him theposition of president of Tokyo ElectricLight Company, Japan’s largest electricutility, before WWII. He was also a government minister in 1940 and 1945.

Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1996

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Japanese Railway History 7

Transportation inside Tokyo

Due to copyright issues, the original photo cannot be shown.

Hankyu Umeda Railway Terminal before WWIIpan. While many of the specialized residential land developers were extremely
small, urban private railway operators
were outstanding in both business scaleand social trust they enjoyed. As the resi-(Hankyu Corporation)

dential land development businessboomed in the suburbs of big cities afterWWII, the role of private railway operators as land developers inevitably increased.

In late 1880s, when building of electricrailways in Tokyo was planned, heateddiscussion took place as to whether therailways should be public or private. The
private sector won the debate and threeprivate operators, which initially took up
the task, merged into a single organization in 1906. But this, in turn, was acquired by the municipal government ofTokyo in 1911 and came under publicmanagement. The total length of tramroutes operated commercially by the Tokyo city government reached 140 km in
the 1920s and peaked in the 1930s at 210
km. The maximum number of tramcars
was 1,400 during the peak, and the average number of passengers each day
passed 1.3 million. Thus, the electric
trams in Tokyo were among the largest
scale in the world. But the facilities werepoor quality. Consequently, the trams
went through management hardships dur-Suburban Tokyo Rail Network in 1934 (Ministry of Railways Official Timetable)

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Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1996

Copyright © 1996 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

ing the 1920s. The first reason was theenormous demand for transportation inthe city, causing difficulties in meeting
demand. The tram railway was always
preoccupied with increasing and reinforcing facilities aimed at securing quantity
rather than quality. Second, since themunicipally-operated transport business
was limited to inside Tokyo due to administrative zoning, it could not keep pacewith the changes taking place in the market structure as the Tokyo metropolitan
area expanded to include neighbouring
regions. The national railway in Tokyoalso dealt a blow to trams because it wasbeginning to take on the functions of citytransport. The third reason was that intervention by politicians forced the Tokyo
municipal government to pay a high priceto acquire the private railway company
originally operating the tram railway. Asa result, capital costs burdened its management. Further pressure on the city
trams was caused by costs incurred to repair the tram railway, which suffered enor-Trams in Nihonbashi in 1935

mous damage in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. No subsidies or loans
were then extended by the national government for transport run by local government.

(Transportation Museum)

Because the transport programmes operated by the Tokyo municipal governmentwere in such difficulties, the government
could not take the initiative in improving
and operating the urban transport system

Suburban Rail Network around Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto and Nagoya in 1934 (Ministry of Railways Official Timetable)

Copyright © 1996 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1996

47

Japanese Railway History 7

as a whole in Tokyo. In the 1930s, when
discussion emerged about unification of
the transit system under public management modelled after experiences in Europe, Tokyo city ran an active campaign
to gain control, but conditions did not allow it.

Arrival of SubwaysThe first application for approval to build
an urban underground railway was submitted in 1917 by Tokuji Hayakawa, apioneer in this field. After researchingactual systems in London, Paris and NewYork, Hayakawa advocated subway construction in Tokyo. He succeeded in organizing a private company called Tokyo
Underground Railway Company andopened initial services of 2.2-km in 1927.
By 1934, the company extended the line
to 8.0 km connecting Asakusa andShimbashi through the busiest commercial district of Tokyo at that time. In a
separate move, another company set upin 1934, called Tokyo Rapid Transit Company opened a 6.3-km route between
Shibuya and Shimbashi. Both were operated practically as a single line, forming
the only subway route in Tokyo before
WWII. Tunnel structure, the third-rail
method, and other technical specifications
were modelled after the New York Subway System.
The task facing the Tokyo city subway plan
was to develop a high-speed railway network within the city comparable to theone forming between the city and the suburbs, and thus to complete a rapid transit
system in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
The obvious limits to the potential of thetram railway stimulated the government
to respond to the activities of Hayakawa
and others. Finally, in 1920 a master planfor developing subways lines totalling 80
km in length was adopted as part of theTokyo Metropolitan City Plan. Generally
speaking, the development of subway

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Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1996

Early Subway at Ueno Stationroutes in Tokyo fell under the responsibility of the municipal government. However, the problem was that constraints inprocuring funds hindered it from working
on the plan, causing construction delays.
As a second best option, private companies were given exceptional permission
to build subways, but no subsidies or assistance programs were available for urban transportation before WWII. As a result, Tokyo ended up with subways built
only on those routes with a potential forhigh profits. The two private companies
that opened subway services constructed
and ran the businesses with no public assistance at all. The master plan formulated in 1920 survived until the 1960s and1970s and route development was conducted based on the plan.

(Transportation Museum)

In Osaka, a 7.4-km underground railway
was built by the municipal government
before WWII, becoming Japan’s first public subway. The relatively healthy financial structure of the transport business inthe city contributed to its success. The
project was characterized by its methodof financing construction, whereby beneficiaries were asked to bear costs.

Shinichi Kato
Mr Kato graduated in economics from Tokyo University in 1973, and, after joining the Ministry ofFinance where his responsibilities included research into fiscal policy and railway history, he became
Professor of Finance Study in the Department of Economics at Teikyo University in June 1996.
He is the author of Fiscal and Monetary Policies During the Reconstruction and High-Growth Period,and Bibliography of Japanese Private Railways and Bus History. He is currently a board member ofthe Railway History Society.

Copyright © 1996 EJRCF. All rights reserved.