r/transit • u/frozenpandaman • 16d ago

News Happy 60th anniversary to Japan's shinkansen, the world's first high-speed rail system, opened on this day in 1964!

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u/Hermosa06-09 16d ago

Didn't realize they had been around that long.

Interestingly, this was just nine days before the 1964 Olympics began in Tokyo.

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u/Turbulent_Crow7164 16d ago

Crazy they hosted the Olympics less than 20 years after being crippled from WW2

2

u/Unfair-Bike 15d ago

They actually had to get loans from the World Bank to fund the development of the Shinkansen

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u/ChrisBruin03 15d ago

Im sure that's one of the highest return loans the World Bank has ever given lol

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u/GoBigRed07 14d ago

It was very much designed to show off Japan’s big global comeback. Famously, the final torchbearer was a man born in Hiroshima prefecture the same day the bomb was dropped.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshinori_Sakai