Why Japan has such good railways • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#151

Post by zdw » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:17 PM UTC

CharlieDigital wrote: post #132

> "I think that though we are a railway company, we consider ourselves a city-shaping company. In Europe for instance, railway companies simply connect cities through their terminals. That is a pretty normal way of operating in this industry, whereas what we do is completely different: we create cities and then, as a utility facility, we add the stations and the railways to connect them one with another." I think thi…

Kyoto station is a great example of this. It's enormous inside, with a hotel on the top, event facilities, and a ton of retail all over.

https://www.kyotostation.com/kyoto-station-building-faciliti...

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#152

Post by socalgal2 » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:18 PM UTC

SeanLuke wrote: post #46

It's generally regarded that Hong Kong has the best subway in the world. There are many reasons for this, but one cannot be overstated: Hong Kong's geography. A huge portion of the city consists of long thin urban corridors sandwiched between mountains and the sea. As a result, Hong Kong need concentrate its funding on only a few subway lines to support a huge portion of the population. This good article aside, I won…

That’s arguably irrelevant to anything except the Shinkansen.

Switzerland has 8m people. Bay Area has 8m people. Switzerland is 1/4th as densely populated as the Bay Area (4x the size) yet they have 10x better transportation

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#153

Post by Freedom2 » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:18 PM UTC

CharlieDigital wrote: post #132

> "I think that though we are a railway company, we consider ourselves a city-shaping company. In Europe for instance, railway companies simply connect cities through their terminals. That is a pretty normal way of operating in this industry, whereas what we do is completely different: we create cities and then, as a utility facility, we add the stations and the railways to connect them one with another." I think thi…

I sometimes see the US referred to as a "post-rail" society, meaning that it has outgrown the need for rail for the more intimate, personal transportation methods we see today. I submit that, like other HN commenters say, the US doesn't need rail due to this society. How will US citizens help their friends move or do their large (in terms of volume) Costco grocery shopping without large trucks and only using rail?

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#154

Post by oliwarner » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:21 PM UTC

ttul wrote: post #75

“Japan’s liberal land use regulation makes it straightforward to build new neighborhoods next to railway lines, giving commuters easy access to city centers. It also enables the densification of these centers, which means that commuters have more places they want to go.” This is the most important paragraph in the article. It can’t be overstated how ingenious Japan’s system of zoning is and how much this has benefitt…

Ingenious? It's a system that endorses hyper-capitalism through sub-9m² kyosho jutaku.

That isn't ingenious, it's battery farming.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#155

Post by kccqzy » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:21 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #96

ttul wrote: post #75

“Japan’s liberal land use regulation makes it straightforward to build new neighborhoods next to railway lines, giving commuters easy access to city centers. It also enables the densification of these centers, which means that commuters have more places they want to go.” This is the most important paragraph in the article. It can’t be overstated how ingenious Japan’s system of zoning is and how much this has benefitt…

[flagged]

Your citations do not back up your claims. For example [3] was talking about immobility and poverty, but not about living near noisy traffic infrastructure.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#156

Post by dudul » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:23 PM UTC

swed420 wrote: post #118

kemiller wrote: post #79

This is a great article, but I think it’s hard to ignore that Japan’s culture of harmony is a big part of why they were able to choose sensible regulations that benefitted everyone. We struggle to pass even the most sensible land use reforms because entrenched interests want to remain entrenched even if it hurts the system overall.

> because entrenched interests want to remain entrenched even if it hurts the system overall. You might say it's because we live in a "low trust society," but not for the reasons the people who usually invoke that term claim.

What are the reasons people usually invoke? And what are the "true reasons"?

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#157

Post by black6 » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:25 PM UTC

willmadden wrote: post #148

I know why Japan has such good railways, and I can also tell you that this blog article doesn't mention any them.

The tragedy of the commons doesn't seem to exist in Japan to the same extent it does in Western nations, especially the US. As you said: that's largely due to reasons not mentioned in the article.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#158

Post by seu » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:26 PM UTC

The article is great and very informative. But I feel there's a general vibe of "privatizations are great". For example, they do mention that privatizations didn't work in Argentina (they were a total mess and the total railway went from something like 50k kilometers to two thirds of that - if) but they don't mention enough of it - or other cases - to understand which regulations and why worked the way they did. It feels too much like it's all about integrating corporations, and that's it.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#159

Post by mmooss » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:26 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #96

ttul wrote: post #75

“Japan’s liberal land use regulation makes it straightforward to build new neighborhoods next to railway lines, giving commuters easy access to city centers. It also enables the densification of these centers, which means that commuters have more places they want to go.” This is the most important paragraph in the article. It can’t be overstated how ingenious Japan’s system of zoning is and how much this has benefitt…

[flagged]

> Fight densification wherever someone tries to push it.

What do you really mean? On that basis, we all would live on isolated farms on the prarie.

Humans are social animals that live in groups, just like other primates. Humans like living in dense cities so much that they pay far more for much smaller spaces in the most dense cities.

That doesn't make all density good but 'fight all densification' is not a real solution. When is it good and when bad? How much desnity in those situations? Those are some of the real questions.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#160

Post by DaedalusII » Sat, Apr 18, 2026, 4:28 PM UTC

Freedom2 wrote: post #153

CharlieDigital wrote: post #132

> "I think that though we are a railway company, we consider ourselves a city-shaping company. In Europe for instance, railway companies simply connect cities through their terminals. That is a pretty normal way of operating in this industry, whereas what we do is completely different: we create cities and then, as a utility facility, we add the stations and the railways to connect them one with another." I think thi…

I sometimes see the US referred to as a "post-rail" society, meaning that it has outgrown the need for rail for the more intimate, personal transportation methods we see today. I submit that, like other HN commenters say, the US doesn't need rail due to this society. How will US citizens help their friends move or do their large (in terms of volume) Costco grocery shopping without large trucks and only using rail?

[flagged]