is the fastest train service running on the Tokaido &

San'yō Shinkansen The is a line of the Japanese Shinkansen high-speed rail network, connecting Shin-Osaka in Osaka with Hakata Station in Fukuoka, the two largest cities in western Japan. Operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West), it is a westward cont ...

lines in Japan. The service stops at only the largest stations, and along the stretch between and , ''Nozomi'' services using

N700 series The is a Japanese Shinkansen high-speed train with tilting capability developed jointly by JR Central and JR West for use on the Tokaido and San'yō Shinkansen lines since 2007, and also operated by JR Kyushu on the Kyushu Shinkansen line. N ...

equipment reach speeds of . The trip between

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

and

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

, a distance of , takes 2 hours 21 minutes on the fastest ''Nozomi'' service, with the fastest service between and taking 4 hours 46 minutes.Hyperdia: Shin-Osaka–Tokyo timetable for 2009-06-11
/ref> The trains stop at fewer stations than the ''

Hikari may refer to: Places *Hikari Station, a station on Sanyō Main Line in Hikari, Yamaguchi * Hikari, Chiba, a former town in Sousa District, Chiba, Japan *Hikari, Yamaguchi, a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan People *Hikari (name), people and ...

'' and '' Kodama'' trains. On the Tōkaidō Shinkansen between and , ''Nozomi'' trains stop only at , , and . On the Sanyō Shinkansen between and , all ''Nozomi'' trains stop at , , and , with certain trains also stopping at additional stations. The ''Nozomi'' service is not valid for foreigners traveling with a Japan Rail Pass.

Stopping patterns (as of May 2019)

Legend Note:
¹ Some trains begin/terminate at Nishi-Akashi, Himeji, Okayama or Hiroshima.
² Some trains begin/terminate at Nagoya. ''Only basic Nozomi stopping patterns are shown. Additional Nozomi trains with differing stopping patterns are added during holiday and high-peak travel periods, and are not included in this table.''

Rolling stock

Current rolling stock

(July 2007 – ) * N700S series (July 2020 – ) File:Shinkansen N700 z15.jpg, N700 series, June 2008 File:Series-N700S-J2.jpg, N700S series, September 2021

Former rolling stock

* 300 series (March 1992 – March 2012) * 500 series (March 1997 – June 2008) * 700 series (March 1999 – March 2020) File:Shinkansen 300kei J61.JPG, 300 series, February 2011 File:Shinkansen 500 series W2 formation.jpg, 500 series, February 2010 File:JR Central Shinkansen 700.jpg, 700 series, January 2008

Formations

Trains are formed as shown below, with car 1 at the Hakata end, and car 16 at the Tokyo end.JR Timetable, August 2011, p.997

N700 series / N700S series

(All cars are completely non-smoking, except for enclosed smoking compartments located in cars 3, 7, 10, and 15) File:Shinkansen N700 series Green seat.JPG, N700 series Green car interior File:Shinkansen N700 series Standard-sized car seat.JPG, N700 series standard-class car interior File:No Smoking.svg, An internationally recognizable "

No Smoking sign The general prohibition sign, also known informally as the no symbol, 'do not' sign, circle-backslash symbol, nay, interdictory circle, prohibited symbol, don't do it symbol, or universal no, is a red circle with a 45-degree diagonal line insid ...

700 series

History

Wartime steam services

The ''Nozomi'' name was first used for long-distance express services operated between

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

Japanese-occupied Korea Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was ruled as a part of the Empire of Japan. Joseon Korea had come into the Japanese sphere of influence with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876; a complex coalition of the Meiji government, military, and business offic ...

and Mukden (now

Shenyang Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu language, Manchu name Mukden, is a major China, Chinese sub-provincial city and the List of capitals in China#Province capitals, provincial capital of Lia ...

) in the former

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

(now China) from 1934. From 1938, the services were extended to run between Busan and Hsinking (now

Changchun Changchun (, ; ), also romanized as Ch'angch'un, is the capital and largest city of Jilin Province, People's Republic of China. Lying in the center of the Songliao Plain, Changchun is administered as a , comprising 7 districts, 1 county and 3 c ...

) in Manchukuo. The 1,530 km journey from Busan to Hsinking took over 29 hours, with an average speed of . The services were run down between 1943 and 1944.

Shinkansen services

''Nozomi'' shinkansen services commenced on March 14, 1992, using new 300 series trainsets with a top speed of 270 km/h. From March 1997, 500 series trainsets were introduced on Tokyo - Hakata ''Nozomi'' services, running at a maximum speed of 300 km/h and covering the section between Shin-Osaka and Hakata in 2 hours 17 minutes. 700 series trains were introduced on ''Nozomi'' services in 1999, and

trains were introduced from July 1, 2007, initially with four daily round-trip runs. All regularly scheduled through ''Nozomi'' services to the San'yō Shinkansen (Tokyo–Hakata) were operated by N700 series sets from 13 March 2010. From the start of the revised timetable on 17 March 2012, all regularly scheduled ''Nozomi'' services, including runs limited to the Tokaido Shinkansen, were operated by N700 series sets.

References

* * JR Timetable, March 2008 issue {{JR West trains Railway services introduced in 1992 Named Shinkansen trains