A train on the Choshi line in the Japanese department of Chiba northeast of Tokyo on October 20, 2022 (AFP/Philip FONG)
Sitting at the controls of an old train with only two cars, Katsunori Takemoto puts on his white gloves and checks gauges from another time before launching his locomotive along cabbage fields in Chiba, east of Tokyo.
Loss-making rail lines are legion in rural Japan, victims of depopulation, cars, freight trucking and the pandemic of late.
But thanks to clever marketing, the small private company Choshi Electric Railway, which operates a single line in an outlying area of Chiba Prefecture, was profitable in its last fiscal year 2021-2022 (straddling the two calendar years), while by contributing to the promotion of local tourism.
“I am convinced that this is the mission of all local trains. We want to serve as publicity vehicles for the communities”, explains to AFP Mr. Takemoto, the president of this modest railway company founded a century ago and which he took over in 2011.
Katsunori Takemoto, chairman of the Choshi Electric Railway company, poses in a train decorated with balloons on October 20, 2022 in Choshi, eastern Japan (AFP/Philip FONG)
“Communities without trains are withering away. Therefore, the revitalization of rural trains must be done within the framework of the revitalization of communities”.
The abundance of rural lines are the legacy of Japan’s economic boom in the decades after World War II, but they failed to resist the exodus of young people to the cities.
– “We did our best” –
According to the Ministry of Transport, 91 of the 95 small railway companies in the country, serving areas far from urban centers or major communication axes, were in the red in 2021-2022.
A Shinkansen bullet train in Omura, near Nagasaki in southern Japan, on September 23, 2022 (JIJI PRESS/AFP/Archives/STR)
This contrasts sharply with the profitability of urban lines and high-speed lines (shinkansen) such as the one connecting Tokyo and Osaka, the major metropolis in the west of the country.
Often, the major Japanese railway companies use their profits in urban areas to subsidize their services in rural areas.
But the giant East Japan Railway (JR East), which carries 13 million passengers a day in Tokyo and eastern Japan, seems to be losing patience.
The group lost 68 billion yen (485 million euros) in 2021/22 to keep afloat 66 sections in particularly loss-making rural areas, and believes it has “done the maximum” to increase their attendance and reduce their costs.
“The fact is that there are areas where the train is not the best mode of transportation,” said Takashi Takaoka, a JR East executive, last summer.
A Choshi Electric Railway train in Choshi, Chiba prefecture northeast of Tokyo, on October 20, 2022 (AFP/Philip FONG)
Not everyone is of the same opinion. Governors of about half of Japan’s 47 counties this year delivered a petition to the transport ministry, warning that cutting rural lines would endanger tourism and result in spending on buses, for example.
Change is inevitable in the long term, however, and innovations like self-driving vehicles will be needed in the face of accelerated population aging in Japan, where more than 29% of the population is aged 65 and over, a world record, experts say.
– Haunted trains and wrestlers –
In the meantime, lines like Mr. Takemoto’s have to get creative in an attempt to resist.
Choshi Electric Railway now derives 80% of its revenue from non-railway activities, including the sale of crackers soaked in soy sauce or corn puffs.
A train enters Inubou station in the China department northeast of Tokyo on October 20, 2022 (AFP/Philip FONG)
Mr. Takemoto aggressively promotes his line on television, joking about his cash-strapped company in self-deprecating fashion. His company has partnered with pop stars, comedians and youtubers to stay in the spotlight.
His company also held special events like “haunted trains” and wrestling matches where wrestlers faced off in train cars and on station platforms in front of laughing passengers.
“Ironically, we have to focus on non-rail services to keep trains running,” Takemoto said.
“The time may come when our service as a railway company will no longer be necessary (…). We are battered, dented and covered in rust. But we believe that there is still a lot to do and we must keep moving forward.”
© 2022 AFP
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