nntsuzu/KFTT huggingface dataset:
English: There are also joint public-private venture railways, which were taken over mainly from unremunerative local lines of Japan National Railways and are managed through investments from local government bodies, in rural areas.
Japanese: このほか、地方部には、主に旧国鉄の赤字ローカル線を継承した、地元自治体等の出資による第三セクター鉄道が存在する。
English: Streetcars are governed by the Act on Rail Tracks and many of them are not 'railways' in a strict sense.
Japanese: 法規上路面電車は軌道法に準拠し、厳密には「鉄道」ではないものがほとんどである。
English: They are managed by either local public enterprises (public transportation) or private companies (private railway companies).
Japanese: 地方公営企業（公営交通）形態のものと民間企業（私鉄）形態のものが混在する。
English: Among these JR companies, East Japan Railway Company (JR East) is world's largest railway business entity.
Japanese: このうち、東日本旅客鉄道（JR東日本）は鉄道事業体として世界最大の規模を誇っている。
English: East Japan Railway Company (JR East), Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central), and West Japan Railway Company (JR West) have sold all stocks held by the nation to the market and achieved a complete privatization.
Japanese: JR東日本、東海旅客鉄道（JR東海）および西日本旅客鉄道（JR西日本）については、国が保有していた株式をすべて市場に売却し、完全民営化が達成されている。
English: Hokkaido Railway Company (JR-Hokkaido), Shikoku Railway Company (JR-Shikoku), Kyushu Railway Company (JR-Kyushu), and Japan Freight Railway Company, on the other hand, are joint-stock-corporation-type special public corporations, which were run by a 100% investment of the government by taking application of laws regarding passenger railway joint-stock corporation and Japan Freight Railway Company.
Japanese: 一方、北海道旅客鉄道（JR北海道）、四国旅客鉄道（JR四国）、九州旅客鉄道（JR九州）、日本貨物鉄道（JR貨物）に関しては、旅客鉄道株式会社及び日本貨物鉄道株式会社に関する法律の適用を受け、政府100%出資の株式会社形態特殊法人。
English: These four companies have very weak management bases, and because it is difficult to manage their business only with railway services, they are aiming for better profits with support from the government, such as funds for stable management, and by diversifying railway-related businesses.
Japanese: これら4社は経営基盤が脆弱であり、鉄道事業だけでは経営が難しいため、経営安定基金などの政府の支援や、多角的な関連事業の展開により、利益の向上を目指している。
English: The 16 major private railways have large passenger transportation volume and are achieving a satisfactory level of profit.
Japanese: 大手私鉄16社は、大都市部を中心として多くの輸送量を誇り、どの会社も利益を上げている。
English: However, in accordance with the decline in population in Japan as a whole, the number of passengers each railway company carries has been gradually decreasing.
Japanese: しかし、日本全体の人口減の影響などを受け、輸送人員は減少傾向である。
English: There are many major private railway companies which turn a profit from railway-related businesses such as real estate business other than railway business.
Japanese: 鉄道事業だけではなく、不動産会社事業などの関連事業で利益を出している会社も多い。
English: Small-and-medium-sized railways in suburbs of the metropolitan areas play a role in the development of areas along the railway and the operation of commercial facilities around the station, thereby ensuring relatively-stable management bases.
Japanese: 大都市近郊の準大手私鉄は、沿線開発や駅周辺の商業施設の運営に関わり、経営基盤は比較的安定している。
English: However, local private railways other than above are strongly affected by decline in population, and most small-and-medium-sized railways, except those which have tourism resources along its route and thus have good tourism business such as Fujikyuko Co., Ltd., are running at a loss.
Japanese: しかし、それ以外の地方私鉄は、人口減、過疎化の影響を強く受けており、富士急行など沿線に観光資源を有し観光事業が好調な事業者を除くと黒字になっている所は少ない。
English: Many railways are forced to reduce their routes or discontinue some lines unless they have a certain demand for some transportation such as inter-city transportation and tourism transportation.
Japanese: 都市間輸送や観光輸送など一定の需要が存在する路線以外は、路線縮小や廃止も相次いでいる。
English: There are also some railway companies that cannot execute some improvement strategies, for example, putting their existing trains on a faster track and introducing new cars, due to their financial difficulties.
Japanese: 既存路線の高速化(鉄道)や新規車輌の導入など改善策の実施が、財政難から不可能な会社もある。
English: The environments surrounding the local private railways are becoming more and more severe because the amount of subsidy has been reduced or the payment of subsidy has completely stopped due to the severe financial situation of today's local public bodies and because after the Railway Business Act was revised, it is now possible to discontinue railway lines simply by notification.
Japanese: 昨今の地方公共団体の財政状態の悪化により補助金が減少あるいは停止されること、鉄道事業法の改正により届出だけで廃止が可能になったことが、地方私鉄を取り巻く環境をさらに厳しいものとしている。
English: The railways run by local public bodies (public transportation) or joint public-private venture railway companies which were co-financed by private companies and local public bodies play roles for subways in cities and transport demands in areas where the transportation network is not well-organized.
Japanese: 地方公共団体（公営交通）や、民間企業と地方公共団体の共同出資による第三セクターによる鉄道は、都市部の地下鉄や、交通網が脆弱な地域の交通需要を担っている。
English: However, in local areas, there are some railway companies that took over unprofitable railway lines from Japan National Railways, and thus the managing status of every company is usually failing.
Japanese: しかし、地方においては、旧国鉄の赤字路線をそのまま引き継ぐなど、経営状態はどこも苦しいのが実情である。
English: In urban areas, on the other hand, there is a great demand for railways, and thus managing status of railway companies varies depending on the line.
Japanese: 都市部においてはまとまった需要があるため、路線により様々な状況がある。
English: There are railway lines that are falling in a vicious cycle in which the fare needs to be increased due to increase in construction cost, which causes slower growth of the passenger transportation volume, and thus the areas along the line are hardly ever developed, while there are some railway lines that are achieving excellent results in passenger transportation, and thus the areas around the line are actively developed, such as Tsukuba Express of Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company.
Japanese: 建設費の高騰から運賃が高価になり、そのため輸送量が伸び悩み、沿線の開発も進まないという悪循環に陥っている路線もある一方、首都圏新都市鉄道つくばエクスプレスのように好調な輸送実績をあげ、沿線開発が盛んに行われている鉄道路線もある。
English: With the privatization and separation of Japan National Railways, freight transportation was handed over to Japan Freight Railway Company.
Japanese: 国鉄分割・民営化に伴い、貨物輸送は日本貨物鉄道（JR貨物）に委ねられた。
English: Although rail freight transportation used to be the foundation of freight transportation in Japan, the volume of rail freight transportation has drastically been decreasing after 1965 due to expansion of expressways and the enriching of home-delivery services, and in a decade from 1975, at a late stage of JNR, freight trains and their facilities were organized substantially to be taken over to Japan Freight Railway Company for management rationalization.
Japanese: かつて鉄道貨物は日本の貨物輸送の基軸を担っていたものの、昭和40年代以降、高速道路網の伸長、宅配サービスの充実などにより、貨物輸送量は激減した、昭和50年代の国鉄末期には、経営合理化のために、貨物列車や設備は大幅に整理された上で、JR貨物に引き継がれた。
English: Even after Japan Freight Railway Company started its operation, the volume of rail freight transportation has remained low; however, the business of Japan Freight Railway Company is moving back into profit due to the increasing demand for environment protection, as well as to the management efforts including review of advantages of railway transportation, adoption of containers instead of freight cars (car load freight), and express delivery by introducing new cars.
Japanese: JR貨物発足後も、鉄道貨物輸送量は低水準にとどまっているが、環境保護という観点や、鉄道輸送のメリットの再見直し、貨車（車扱貨物）からコンテナ化、新車導入による速達化などの営業努力により、JR貨物の経営は黒字に転じている。
English: On the other hand, however, there are many small-and-medium-sized private railways (e.g. seaside railways) whose main services are freight transportations in local areas and which are in a tough management situation.
Japanese: しかし、地方の貨物輸送を中心とする中小私鉄（臨海鉄道等）については、経営の厳しいところも多い。
English: Passenger transportation volume of railways tended to grow until 1955 to 1964; however, after 1965, many small-and-medium-sized private railways were discontinued because of change in population distribution (concentration of population in large cities) along with change in industrial structures in the high economic growth period, and reduction in transportation volume of small-and-medium-sized private railways in local areas due to the widespread use of private cars.
Japanese: 昭和30年代までは全体的に増加傾向にあったが、昭和40年代以降は、まず高度経済成長期の産業構造の変化にともなう人口分布の変化（大都市への集中）と、自家用自動車の普及により地方中小私鉄の輸送量減少が進み、多くの中小私鉄が廃線となった。
English: In the 1970's and later, the demand for long-distance transportation by railway has been further dropped due to increase in transportation by car and air, which was enhanced by cheaper air fares, development of roads including expressway construction using the road-related tax revenue system, and price-reduction in oil after the "oil shock."
Japanese: 昭和40年代後半（1970年代）以降は航空運賃の低廉化、道路特定財源制度等を利用して日本の高速道路建設等の道路整備、オイルショック後の石油の低価格化による自動車・航空機の増加で、鉄道による長距離輸送の需要減が進んだ。
English: Today, due to regression of population distribution to the city center triggered by low birthrate and aging, not only small-and-medium-sized private railways in local areas, but private railways in big cities are gradually having more lines connecting the city center and suburbs, whose transportation volume is changing from increase to decrease.
Japanese: 現在では少子化・高齢化と人口分布の都心回帰が進み、地方中小私鉄だけでなく、大都市圏の私鉄でも、都心と郊外を結ぶ路線については輸送人員が増加から減少に転じる路線も出てきている。
English: In urban areas, on the other hand, there are some lines whose transportation volume is increasing year after year, and increase in transportation volume due to newly-opened lines can be also seen.
Japanese: 一方、都市部においては輸送量が年々増加している路線もあるし、路線の開業による輸送量の増加もみられる。
English: In local areas too, there are some lines which are enjoying an increase in transportation volume because of various improvement strategies against automobile and airline companies and due to increase in tourists.
Japanese: 地方においても自動車や航空会社に対抗した種々の改善策、観光客の増加などにより、一部路線においては輸送量が増えているところもある。
English: Some cars of Shinkansen, which are specially designed and built to run at high speed, are operated at 300 kilometers per hour maximum ('Nozomi (train)' on the Sanyo Shinkansen line, Nishi-Akashi and to the west).
Japanese: 特別に高速運転ができるように設計・建設された新幹線では、最高で時速300km/h（山陽新幹線「のぞみ(列車)」、西明石以西）の高速運転がなされている。
English: The maximum speed of regular train lines, on the other hand, is set at approximately 120 - 130 kilometers per hour for major lines, except for only a few lines on which some trains are operated at 160 kilometers per hour maximum.
Japanese: 一方、在来線の最高速度はごく一部に160km/h走行が可能な路線がある程度で、重要幹線でもおおむね120-130km/hにとどまっている。
English: Many railways are adopting narrow-gauge lines, and thus the base cars are logically designed small, which makes installation of a high-power motor difficult.
Japanese: 多くの路線が狭軌であり、台車が小さくなるので高出力のモーターを搭載するのが難しかった。
English: There are many linear lines because it is difficult to build many long, wide tunnels due to the issue of construction cost despite the large number of mountains (for operations of steam locomotives, it was more advantageous to avoid sharp inclinations even if the number of curves would be large; moreover, long, wide tunnels also have a problem of smoke from steam locomotives, other than issue of cost).
Japanese: 山地が多いが長大トンネルを建設費等を理由に多数建設できないため線形(路線)が多い（蒸気機関車の走行にはカーブを増やしてでも勾配をできるだけ避けた方が有利であった。また、長大トンネルは建設費等のほかに蒸気機関車からの煤煙の問題があった）。
English: Because of the high population density, there are many railroad crossings, which introduced a rule in which the train must stop completely within 600 meters after the emergency brake is activated (600m provision).
Japanese: 人口が密集しているために踏切が多く、そのため非常ブレーキをかけてから600m以内で停止しなければならないという規制があった（600m条項）。
English: People's confidence toward railways which generally have higher safety than other means of transportation is showing a declining trend due to some serious accidents including the derailment accident on the JR Fukuchiyama Line.
Japanese: JR福知山線脱線事故などにより、交通機関の中は安全性が高い鉄道に対する信頼感が低下する傾向がある。
English: These measures include the nucleus ones such as automatic train control (ATC), as well as more meticulous measures such as platforms doors, etc.
Japanese: 自動列車制御装置(ATC)などの基幹的な安全対策は元より、ホームドア等の細かな安全対策を取る所も多い。
English: In accordance with the enforcement of a law regarding promotion of smooth transfer for elderly persons and physically disabled people in public transportation use, each company is making efforts in promoting barrier-free systems.
Japanese: 高齢者、身体障害者等の公共交通機関を利用した移動の円滑化の促進に関する法律の施行に伴い、各事業者とも、バリアフリー化に力を入れている。
English: Expansion and improvement of escalators and elevators are mainly promoted especially in urban areas.
Japanese: 主にエスカレータ、エレベーター設備の拡充が、都市部を中心に行なわれている。
English: However, there are also many railway companies which have not made much progress due to their severe managing conditions.
Japanese: しかし、経営状態のよくない事業者ではバリアフリー化が進展していないところも多い。
English: To increase the number of passengers, improvements in service quality are necessary, and thus each company is implementing various measures.
Japanese: 利用者の増加を図るためにはサービス向上が必要であり、このために各事業者とも種々の施策を講じている。
English: Such measures range from the enrichment of human resources such as employee training, to the introduction of some convenient cards which can be used commonly among some railways without paying for fares even when a person uses more than one railway continuously, as well as some cashless systems.
Japanese: 社員教育などの人的な点から、複数路線をまたがって利用したときの精算の手間を省く共通カード導入、さらにキャッシュレス化などが行なわれている。
English: In addition, by setting up or soliciting some stores in the station yard (commonly known as 'Ekinaka' - a space for commercial purpose set up in a station yard), railway companies try to boost users' convenience and raise their own revenue at the same time.
Japanese: また、駅構内に店舗を勧誘・設置する（いわゆる「駅ナカ」）ことにより、利用者の利便性を向上し、同時に鉄道事業者の収益を確保する手法も広く用いられている。
English: Because JR Group is now able to conduct business more freely due to privatization compared to the JNR era, many tenants are developing stores in yards especially of major stations in urban areas.
Japanese: JRは、民営化によって旧国鉄時代に比べて自由に事業が実施できるようになったため、大都市部の主要駅を中心に、多くのテナントが駅舎内に展開するようになった。
English: However, shops and stores near stations may often be affected by the tenants which are located in station yards, overwhelmingly advantageous locations.
Japanese: しかし、駅構内という圧倒的に有利な立地に商店を開業することで、駅周辺の商店への影響が出ている場合もある。
English: It is said that railways in Japan are highly reliable compared with railways in other nations.
Japanese: 日本の鉄道は、他国の鉄道と比較して、定時性がきわめて高いと言われている。
English: Shunzo MIYAWAKI, a railway travel writer, points out the large number of in-service trains and their accuracy is what Japanese railways are proud of in today's world.
Japanese: 鉄道紀行作家の宮脇俊三は、日本の鉄道が世界に誇れることとして、列車本数の多さと時間の正確さを挙げていた。
English: In fact, there is a great story about some foreign railway officials who visited Japan; they got a pocket watch from the Japanese station attendants and checked the arrival time of a train, and when they saw the train arrived at the station on time punctual to a second, they said 'Crazy!'
Japanese: 現に海外の鉄道関係者が来日して新幹線に乗車した際、懐中時計を各人に日本人が持たせて駅の到着時刻を計らせたら、1秒違わず到着するのを見て「クレイジー」であると証言したという逸話も存在している。
English: Incidentally, there are some documents introducing Japanese people's sense of time, in which while most overseas railways regard a delay of 5 to 15 minutes as punctual (even for high-speed railways), a delay or early arrival of 15 to 30 seconds is regarded as not punctual.
Japanese: また、海外では5-15分程度の遅れは（高速鉄道であろうと）定時とみなすところが多いが、日本では15-30秒程度のずれも遅れと見なされることもあり、時間に関する日本人の感覚を裏付けるもととして各書籍物で紹介されることさえある。
English: In Japan, a heavily-populated country, the number of in-service trains naturally tend to be more, but, at the same time, a slight time lag of a train may affect other connecting trains; therefore, maintaining punctuality has been inevitable.
Japanese: -人口が密集している日本においては、列車本数が諸国に比べても必然的に多くなる傾向があるが、そうなると僅かな時間差でも他の列車に影響を及ぼすため、必然的に定時性を保つ必要が出てきた。
English: Japan is one of the countries that has the best thought-out railway network in the world, if not as good as some countries like Switzerland.
Japanese: -日本は、スイスの鉄道等一部の国には劣るものの、世界で最も綿密な鉄道網を有する国の一つである。
English: Trains are often connected to each other at a junction station and sometimes make connections and separations.
Japanese: 分岐駅で列車同士が接続することも多くなり、時には分割併結を行うこともある。
English: In this case too, a slight time lag of a train may cause a larger time lag of other connecting trains, and thus high punctuality is needed.
Japanese: この場合も僅かなずれが生じると、全部の路線の多数列車に影響を及ぼすことになるため、定時性が高まる。
English: Railways in Japan have poor infrastructures on lines and in station facilities for large number of trains and transportation volume.
Japanese: -日本の鉄道は、列車本数や輸送量の多さに対して、線路や駅設備などのインフラストラクチャが貧弱である。
English: For example, there are some sections that should have a quadruple track, but actually have only a double track.
Japanese: 本来なら複々線が適当な線区でも、複線しか敷設されていないことも多い。
English: Therefore, a slight delay of a train can affect all of the other related lines.
Japanese: そのため、ある列車のわずかな遅れで、関係する路線すべてに影響を及ぼす。
English: Especially in recent years, for the purpose of rationalization, sidings and passing tracks have been removed, resulting in reduction in resilience against disruption in the time schedule.
Japanese: 近年は特に「合理化」を目的に、待避線や行き違い線の撤去などを行っており、ダイヤ乱れに対する回復力が低下している。
English: Many employees and workers used to be working hard to support the accurate train schedules before, and thus addressing the problem locally even for disruptions in the time schedule; however, due to reduction and rationalization of personnel and unification of instructions, it is getting more difficult to implement finely-tuned operation management in recent years.
Japanese: -以前は、列車の正確な運行を支えるため、多くの社員・職員が努力していたほか、ダイヤが乱れた場合でも、局所的な対応で間に合う場合も多かったが、近年は要員の削減や合理化、指令の一元化などにより、きめ細かな運転整理が難しくなっている。
English: Moreover, coping with disruptions in the time schedule is becoming less flexible due to use of computers.
Japanese: また、コンピュータの導入により、ダイヤが乱れた場合の融通が利かなくなっている。
English: Many relevant people such as Koki YUKI, a person called 'the god of train operation,' worked hard to maintain the punctuality of railways in Japan, resulting in the maintenance of today's excellent punctuality.
Japanese: 「運転の神様」と呼ばれる結城弘毅をはじめ、様々な関係者が鉄道の定時性を保とうと苦心した結果、現在の定時性が保たれている。
English: In recent years, there are some railway companies which have some more time allowance in case for the delay of trains by extending the required travel time, which used to be shortened as a countermeasure against competitors, through review of the time schedule.
Japanese: 最近では各地でダイヤの見直しによって一旦は競合交通機関対策で短縮した所要時間を多少延ばして遅れても問題無いように余裕時間を増やしている鉄道会社もある。
English: The passenger transportation volume of railways in Japan is high level, especially commuter trains operated on the major lines in the Tokyo area and Osaka area, and Tokaido Shinkansen connecting major cities has high transport density unlike any other railways in the world.
Japanese: 日本の鉄道の旅客輸送量は高水準であり、特に通勤列車として東京圏、大阪圏の主要路線と、都市間を結ぶ鉄道として東海道新幹線は、世界の鉄道でも類例を見つけることが困難なほどの高い輸送密度を有している。
English: In the Tokyo area, the Yamanote Line, the Chuo-Kaisoku Line, and some other lines carry 3000 to 4000 passengers at a time with 10 cars, and each major line all together carries around 100,000 passengers each way on a double track for an hour during rush hours; this can not be seen in railways in other developed countries.
Japanese: 東京圏では、山手線、中央快速線等の路線で、10両編成で3,000-4,000人の乗客が輸送され、複線でラッシュ1時間当たり片道10万人前後の輸送人員に達するが、このような輸送量を持つ路線は少なくとも先進国の鉄道では他に例がない。
English: The design of six-door cars in which all seats are put away during rush hours cannot be seen in any other country, and images of the cutthroat rush hours are often introduced in foreign countries.
Japanese: 混雑時に椅子がすべて収容される6扉車は他国に類のない設計であり、過酷なラッシュ時は他国でもしばしば紹介されることがある。
English: Railways in Japan are very efficient from the perspective of energy consumption and land use, and economic activities in the national capital region (Japan), which is the largest metropolitan area in the world, could not have been achieved without these railways; on the other hand, however, there are some problems from the perspective of social comfort and welfare, which has not reached drastic improvement over 100 years in the history of railways in Japan.
Japanese: エネルギー消費や土地利用の観点からは非常に効率がよく、世界最大の都市圏である首都圏(日本)の経済活動はこのような鉄道なしには成立しえない反面、人々の生活の快適性や福祉の観点からは問題があり、しかも100年以上の日本の鉄道の歴史において、抜本的な改善を見ていない。
English: In addition, Tokaido Shinkansen is operated between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka at almost the same frequency of commuter trains, with as many as ten trains operated per hour during the morning and evening rush hours; mid- and long-distance trains connecting large cities with this passenger transportation volume and frequency cannot be seen so far anywhere in the world.
Japanese: また東海道新幹線の東京-新大阪間は、通勤列車なみの頻度で運行され、朝夕には毎時10本もの列車が走っているが、これだけの輸送量・頻度で中長距離の都市間を結ぶ鉄道も、現在のところ世界では他に例がない。
English: The share of passenger transportation of railways in Japan once dropped drastically through widespread of automobiles (motorization) from 1955 to 1974 but has still maintained about 30%, which is the highest level in the world.
Japanese: 日本の鉄道の旅客輸送のシェアは、昭和30年代、40年代の自動車の普及（モータリゼーション）を経て大幅に低下した後も、約30%を維持しており、世界各国と比較しても最も高い水準である。
English: As mentioned earlier, trains operating in the Tokyo and Osaka areas, and the Shinkansen are relatively more convenient than other means of transportation and thus are used and are popular on a daily basis.
Japanese: 前述したとおり特に東京圏、大阪圏の鉄道と新幹線は、他の交通機関と比べて相対的に利便性が高いため、日常的に人々に利用され親しまれている。
English: However, unlike in the Tokyo and Osaka areas, automobiles are more convenient than railways in local areas and there are many cases where railways are not used very frequently.
Japanese: ただし東京圏、大阪圏以外の地方部では自動車の利便性の方が高く、鉄道はあまり利用されない場合が多い。
English: In Japan, private railways take an important role especially in the Tokyo area, Osaka area, and Nagoya area.
Japanese: 日本では、特に東京圏、大阪圏、名古屋圏の鉄道は、私鉄の果たす役割が大きい。
English: Similarly, after privatization, East Japan Railway Company (JR East), Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central), and West Japan Railway Company (JR West) in the JR Group have been remaining in the black.
Japanese: また分割・民営化後のJRも、東日本旅客鉄道、東海旅客鉄道、西日本旅客鉄道の3社は黒字経営を続けている。
English: These JR companies and private railway companies are developing various businesses related to lives of the railway customers and residents living along the lines such as real estate business, retail business, hotel business, and other business, while attending hard to railway business.
Japanese: これらのJR、私鉄は、鉄道業を中心として、不動産、小売業、宿泊業など、鉄道利用者や沿線住民の生活に関する様々な関連事業を展開している。
English: In other countries, it is said that it is extremely difficult to turn a profit with the railway business, and thus, the railway business cannot work out without the investments of the government or other organizations.
Japanese: 他国では、現在では鉄道業で採算が成立することはきわめて難しく、鉄道事業は政府などの出資なしには成り立たないとされる。
English: While there are many countries in which the railway network was developed by private companies in pioneer days of railways, there are no countries in which private railways have maintained the railway network widely up to the present date except for Japan.
Japanese: 鉄道の草創期は民間事業者によって鉄道網が発展した国は多いものの、現在に至るまで私鉄が広く路線網を維持している国はない。
English: In Japan, cities grow around the railway station, which is the center of people's lives and business and adds sparkle to people's lives, especially in the Tokyo area, Osaka area, and major terminal stations in local areas such as prefectural capitals and stops for Shinkansen.
Japanese: 日本では、特に東京圏、大阪圏や、県庁所在都市、新幹線停車駅など地方の主要ターミナルでは、鉄道駅を中心に都市が発展し、駅が人々の生活やビジネスの中心となって活気を呈している。
English: Furthermore, Tokyu Corporation, Hankyu Corporation, and some other companies have been implementing real-estate development by themselves to create suburban residential areas using their own lines as a core.
Japanese: さらに東京急行電鉄、阪急電鉄などの私鉄は、自ら不動産開発を行い、自社線を核にした郊外住宅地を作るという事業展開を進めてきた。
English: Currently, throughout the world, there are not very many cases where railway stations are functioning as a center of the town or a representative of the town as especially seen in the Tokyo area and Osaka area in Japan.
Japanese: 現在、鉄道駅が街の中心、街の顔として、特に日本の東京圏、大阪圏ほど機能している例は世界的にも多くない。
English: Rather, there are many cases where the station used to be the center of the town, but was left behind in the development of the town and thus is now located in a rough area, or the station is located outside of the city center where not very many people gather.
Japanese: むしろ、かつては街の中心であったものの、自動車の普及後は街の発展から取り残されて治安の悪いさびれた場所になっていたり、街の核から外れて駅が人の集まらない場所になっている場合が多い。