List of railway lines in Japan lists existing railway lines in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

alphabetically. The vast majority of Japanese railways are classified under two Japanese laws, one for and another for . The difference between the two is a legal, and not always substantial, one. Some

regional rail Regional rail, also known as local trains and stopping trains, are passenger rail services that operate between towns and cities. These trains operate with more stops over shorter distances than inter-city rail, but fewer stops and faster serv ...

s are classified as ''kidō'', while some light rails are actually ''tetsudō''. There are also other railways not legally classified as either ''tetsudō'' or ''kidō'', such as airport people movers, ''

slope car A is a small automated monorail, or a fusion between monorail, people mover, and rack railway. It is a brand name of . Since this mode of transportation is relatively unknown, it lacks widely accepted generic name, other than the simple "monorai ...

s'' (automated small

rack Rack or racks may refer to: Storage and installation * Amp rack, short for amplifier rack, a piece of furniture in which amplifiers are mounted * Bicycle rack, a frame for storing bicycles when not in use * Bustle rack, a type of storage bi ...

monorails), or

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

rides. Those lines are not listed here. According to the laws, ''tetsudō/kidō'' include conventional railways (over ground or

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...

, including subways), as well as maglev trains,

monorail A monorail (from "mono", meaning "one", and "rail") is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, ...

s, ''new transit systems'' (a blanket term roughly equivalent to

people mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...

automated guideway transit An automated guideway transit (AGT) or automated fixed-guideway transit or automatic guideway transit system is a type of fixed guideway transit infrastructure with a riding or suspension track that supports and physically guides one or more dr ...

in other countries), '' skyrails'' (automated small

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

monorails),

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trol ...

es, guideway buses,

funicular A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite en ...

s (called "cable cars" in Japan), and

aerial lift An aerial lift, also known as a cable car or ropeway, is a means of cable transport in which ''cabins'', ''cars'', ''gondolas'', or open chairs are hauled above the ground by means of one or more cables. Aerial lift systems are frequently employ ...

s. Among them, all but aerial lifts are listed here. See the

list of aerial lifts in Japan The list of aerial lifts in Japan lists aerial lifts in the nation. In Japan, aerial lift, or , includes means of transport such as aerial tramway, funitel, gondola lift, funifor, as well as chairlift. All of them are legally considered as a sor ...

article for aerial lifts. Some

industrial railway An industrial railway is a type of railway (usually private) that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics, or military site. In regions of the world influenced by British ra ...

s are also classified as ''tetsudō/kidō'', while some are not. However, this list does not include any industrial railways. See the corresponding Japanese article for the listing. ''Tetsudō/kidō'' also include (non-funicular) cable cars,

horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, w ...

s, and handcars, but those modes of transportation have already disappeared from the country. The list basically shows line names without operator names. When the official line name does include the operator name, the line is listed twice, with and without the operator. To make the search easier, official nicknames and unofficial common names are also listed. Some English names are tentative translations. {, class="wikitable" , - ! colspan=3 , List of railway lines in Japan , - , #, A to I , J to P , R to Z , -

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These

modes of transport Mode of transport is a term used to distinguish between different ways of transportation or transporting people or goods. The different modes of transport are air, water, and land transport, which includes rails or railways, road and off-road t ...

are all classified as railways in Japan. File:Gakunan train at Yoshiwara Station 200511.jpg, Conventional railway File:Taiheiyo Coal Rinko Line.jpg, Conventional railway (freight) File:Hakodateshiden30kei.JPG, Tramway File:Kurobe Dam station platform.jpg, Trolleybus File:Taishaku Handcar Tramway.jpg, Handcar File:Historical village of Hokkaido4,JAPAN.jpg, Horsecar File:Kobe maya cablecar03 2816.jpg, Funicular File:TamaToshiMonorail6061.jpg, Monorail File:Portliner 8000 01.jpg, New transit system (people mover) File:Linimo approaching Banpaku Kinen Koen, towards Fujigaoka Station.jpg, New transit system (maglev) File:Skyrail-car.jpg, New transit system (skyrail) File:NAGOYA guideway bus001.JPG, New transit system (guideway bus) These are ''not'' classified as railways in Japan and are thus not covered in this article. File:Shuttle of Narita Turminal 2 200507-1.jpg, Airport people mover File:Slope car Muya.jpg, Slope car File:SL_train_Apto-kun.jpg, Attraction ride File:Tateyama Sabo Mizutani.jpg, Industrial railway (some of them)

Lines Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

zh:日本鐵路線一覽

See also

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