was the fourth president of the

Japanese National Railways The abbreviated JNR or , was the business entity that operated Japan's national railway network from 1949 to 1987. Network Railways As of June 1, 1949, the date of establishment of JNR, it operated of narrow gauge () railways in all 46 pref ...

(JNR), and is credited with the creation of the first "bullet train", the

Tōkaidō Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed rail line that is part of the nationwide Shinkansen network. Along with the Sanyo Shinkansen, it forms a continuous high-speed railway through the Taiheiyō Belt, also known as the Tokaido corridor. Opened in 1964, ...

. Born in

Niihama, Ehime 270px, Niihama City Hall 270px, Aerial View of Central Niihama is a city located in the eastern part of Ehime Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 115,824 in 57781 households and a population density of 490 persons per ...

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

, in 1884, Shinji Sogo graduated from the Faculty of Law at

Tokyo Imperial University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

in 1909, and joined the Railway Agency. While working for the Teito Reconstruction Agency after the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923, he was strongly influenced by

Shinpei Gotō Shinpei or Shimpei (written: , , , , , or ) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese politician *, Japanese cyclist *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese politician *, Japanese manga artist *, Japanese po ...

, the Agency president. After leaving the government railways in 1926, he became a director of the

South Manchuria Railway The South Manchuria Railway ( ja, 南満州鉄道, translit=Minamimanshū Tetsudō; ), officially , Mantetsu ( ja, 満鉄, translit=Mantetsu) or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operatio ...

. While at the

, he became closely connected with

Kwantung Army ''Kantō-gun'' , image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG , image_size = 300px , caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo , dates = April ...

officer Ishiwara Kanji, the key force behind the

Manchurian Incident The Mukden Incident, or Manchurian Incident, known in Chinese as the 9.18 Incident (九・一八), was a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. On September 18, 1931, L ...

. Sogō acted as part of Ishiwara's "brain-trust" when Ishiwara was at the height of his power in 1936–1937. Sogō was part of Ishiwara's efforts to deny General Kazushige Ugaki the position of Prime Minister in January 1937, and install General Senjūrō Hayashi as Prime Minister. He helped Hayashi form his cabinet. Later that year his patron Ishiwara was forced out of power, and Sogō also lost his influence. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he served as Chairman of the Railway Welfare Association until he was appointed JNR president in 1955.

Influence on the Shinkansen

The decision to construct a standard-gauge Shinkansen at the end of the 1950s owed much to Shinji Sogō. To improve the existing

Tōkaidō Main Line The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...

, he insisted on adopting standard gauge despite much opposition. He firmly believed that the international standard gauge was indispensable for radical improvement of Japanese railways—a view taken by

about 50 years earlier. This view was also shared by

Hideo Shima was a Japanese engineer and the driving force behind the building of the first bullet train (Shinkansen). Shima was born in Osaka in 1901, and educated at the Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied Mechanical Engineering. His father was p ...

who had been appointed by Sogō as the chief engineer of the

Shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond l ...

project. Sogō devised a plan to make it almost impossible for the government to withdraw its support, once given. Central to Sogo's strategy was the use of a loan from the

International Bank of Reconstruction and Development The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) is an international financial institution, established in 1944 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, that is the lending arm of World Bank Group. The IBRD offers ...

(

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

). This was apparently an idea put to him by future Prime Minister and then Minister of Finance,

Eisaku Satō was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister from 1964 to 1972. He is the third-longest serving Prime Minister, and ranks second in longest uninterrupted service as Prime Minister. Satō entered the National Diet in 1949 as a membe ...

, who had previously worked with Sogō in the Railway Ministry. With the successful application for a $80 million loan (estimated to be no more than 15 percent of the cost of the line) in place, it ensured that the Japanese government had to remain committed to the project. At the same time, Sogō, who had kept estimated cost figures of the

deliberately low for fear that if they were too high neither the Japanese Government nor the World Bank would have supported the proposal, began to divert money from other JNR projects to the construction of the Shinkansen. This was possible because once JNR's total budget was approved by the

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

, the JNR president had "discretionary authority" over how to spend it. Sogo also kept down the declared maximum proposed speed at a relatively modest 200 km/h and argued successfully that this was not a new line but expansion of the existing Tōkaidō Line. When the budget diversion became a political issue, he resigned in 1963, taking full responsibility for the decision. However, much of the credit for the

goes to him. In 1965, a year after the inaugural run, Sogo was decorated by Emperor Hirohito with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, an award recognizing his extraordinary service to Japan. A plaque commemorating Shinji Sogō was installed on platforms 18/19 at

Tokyo Station Tokyo Station ( ja, 東京駅, ) is a railway station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The original station is located in Chiyoda's Marunouchi business district near the Imperial Palace grounds. The newer Eastern extension is not far from the Ginza ...

References

External links

Shinji Sogo Museum website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sogo, Shinji 1884 births 1981 deaths University of Tokyo University of Tokyo alumni History of rail transport in Japan Japanese people in rail transport