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Map showing the approximate areas covered by each company in the JR Group. JR Freight operates nationwide.

The Japan Railways Group, more commonly known as JR Group (JRグループ, Jeiāru Gurūpu^?), is a group of seven for-profit companies that took over most of the assets and operations of the government-owned Japanese National Railways on April 1, 1987. Most of the liability of the JNR were taken over by the JNR Settlement Corporation.

The JR Group lies at the heart of Japan's railway network, operating almost all intercity rail service (including the Shinkansen high-speed rail lines) and a large proportion of commuter rail service. A strong distinction is still made between JR and other private railway companies; for instance, the two are generally denoted differently on maps.

The six passenger operating companies of the JR Group are separated by region, but many operate long-distance train service beyond their regional boundaries. The train service between Nagoya and Toyama (Shirasagi), for instance, is operated by JR West rolling stock but a part of its operation route (between Nagoya and Maibara) is owned by JR Central, whose crew manage the train on that section.

Freight service belongs to Japan Freight Railway Company or JR Freight which operates all freight network previously owned by JNR.

• Passenger
  • Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaidō)
  • East Japan Railway Company (JR East)
  • Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central)
  • West Japan Railway Company (JR West)
  • Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku)
  • Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyūshū)
• Freight
  • Japan Freight Railway Company (JR Freight)

In addition, there are two non-operating companies, i.e. Railway Technical Research Institute and Railway Information Systems Co., Ltd. Unlike some other groups of companies, JR Group companies are all independent and do not have a body to set overall policy of business, such as group headquarters or a holding company.

To cover various non-railway business areas, each of JR Group companies has its own group of subsidiary companies, called "JR East Group", "JR Shikoku Group" or like, which is distinguished from JR Group.

JR maintains a nation-wide railway network as well as common ticketing rules that it succeeded from JNR. This means that passengers may travel across several JR companies without changing trains and without re-purchasing tickets as they did in the JNR era, although the through-running trains across the borders of JR companies have been reduced. As for ticketing systems, JR maintains the same ticketing rules based on the JNR rules and an integrated MARS ticket reservation system. Some types of tickets (passes), such as Japan Rail Pass and Seishun 18 Ticket, are issued as "valid for all JR lines" with no designated route of ride and accepted by all passenger JR companies.

The demise of the government-owned system came after charges of serious management inefficiencies, profit losses, and fraud. By the early 1980s, passenger and freight business had declined, and fare increases failed to keep up with higher labor costs.

What remained of the debt-ridden Japanese National Railways after its 1987 breakup was named the Japanese National Railways Settlement Corporation. Its purpose was to dispose of assets and debts not absorbed by the successor companies and to execute other activities relating to the breakup, such as outplacement of former personnel.

The new companies introduced competition, cut their staffing, and made reform efforts. Initial public reaction to these moves was good: the combined passenger travel on the Japan Railways Group passenger companies in 1987 was 204.7 billion passenger-kilometers, up 3.2 % from 1986, while the passenger sector previously had been stagnant since 1975. The growth in passenger transport of private railways in 1987 was 2.6 %, which meant that the Japan Railways Group's rate of increase was above that of the private sector railroads for the first time since 1974. Demand for rail transport improved, although it still accounted for only 28 % of passenger transportation and only 5 % of cargo transportation in 1990. Rail passenger transportation was superior to automobiles in terms of energy efficiency and of speed in long distance transportation.

Initially, the companies remained government-owned, but privatisation began for some of the companies in the early 1990s. The six companies had 18,800 kilometers of routes (mostly 1.1-metre track) in use in the late 1980s. About 25 % of the routes were in double-track and multitrack sections, and the rest were single-track. In 1988 about 51 % of the six companies' 1,000 locomotives were diesel, and the rest were electric.

Japan Freight Railway Company owns its locomotives (295 diesel and 569 electric locomotives in 1988), rolling stock and stations, but hires track from the six passenger companies. It runs fewer trains on less track than Japanese National Railways freight service did before its demise, but at increased revenues and higher productivity.

The Shinkansen Property Corporation (新幹線保有機構, Shinkansen Hoyū Kikō^?) leased Shinkansen railway facilities, including 2,100 kilometers of 1.4-meter gauge highspeed track, to the passenger companies on Honshū. In 1991, the SPC was reorganised into the Railway Development Fund (鉄道整備基金, Tetsudo Seibi Kikin^?) and the three operators bought their lines on 60-year loans.^[1] Some of the Shinkansen electric-powered trains operate at speeds up to 300 kilometers per hour.

Another nearly 3,400 kilometers of routes, mostly 1.1-meter gauge, are operated by major private railways and by what are known in Japan as third-sector railroads--new companies, financed with private and local government funds--which absorbed some of Japanese National Railways' rural lines. There were twenty-seven private and third-sector companies in 1989.

• Japanese National Railways
• Rail transport in Japan
• List of railway companies in Japan
• Private railway
• Shinkansen
• Japan Railways locomotive numbering and classification

• Japan Railways Group
• Hisakyu's Railway Guide

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain. - Japan