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30-695: The Shikoku Railway Company ( 四国旅客鉄道株式会社 , Shikoku Ryokaku Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha ) , commonly known as JR Shikoku ( JR四国 , Jei-āru Shikoku ) , is the smallest of the seven constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates 855.2 kilometres (531.4 mi) of intercity and local rail services in the four prefectures on the island of Shikoku in Japan. The company has its headquarters in Takamatsu, Kagawa . In 1988 JR Shikoku, unlike other JR companies, discontinued

60-466: A nationwide freight operator. Unlike some other groups of companies, the JR Group is made up of independent companies, and it does not have group headquarters or a holding company to set the overall business policy. The six passenger railways of the JR Group are separated by region. Nearly all their services are within the prescribed geographic area. However, some long-distance operations extend beyond

90-662: A quarter of all paddy fields in Japan. Chiba Prefecture is famous for its peanuts, also being the largest producer in Japan. Rare species of the lichen genus Menegazzia are found only in Honshu. Most of Japan's tea and silk is from Honshu. Japan's three largest industrial regions are all located on Honshu: the Keihin region , the Hanshin Industrial Region , and the Chūkyō Industrial Area . Honshu

120-472: Is home to a large portion of Japan's minimal mineral reserves, including small oil and coal deposits. Several coal deposits are located in the northern part of the island, concentrated in Fukushima Prefecture and Niigata Prefecture , though Honshu's coal production is negligible in comparison to Hokkaido and Kyushu . Most of Japan's oil reserves are also located in northern Honshu, along

150-435: Is now widely used by rail companies, especially metro systems in Japan, JR Shikoku was the first JR company to adopt it. JR Shikoku provides intercity transportation with its limited express services, connecting major cities on the island of Shikoku with Okayama on Honshū . The company also operates local trains. Japan Railways Group The JR Group operates a large proportion of intercity rail service (including

180-513: Is roughly 1,300 km (810 mi) long and ranges from 50 to 230 km (31 to 143 mi) wide, and its total area is 227,960 km (88,020 sq mi), making it slightly larger than the island of Great Britain . Its land area has been increasing with land reclamation and coastal uplift in the north due to plate tectonics with a convergent boundary . Honshu has 10,084 kilometres (6,266 mi) of coastline. Mountainous and volcanic, Honshu experiences frequent earthquakes (such as

210-412: Is seismically active, and is home to 40 active volcanoes. In 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0–9.1 occurred off the coast of Honshu, generating tsunami waves up to 40.5 meters (133 ft) high and killing 19,747. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan , and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900. The tsunami subsequently led to

240-701: Is the largest and most populous island of Japan . It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait , north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea , and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits . The island separates the Sea of Japan , which lies to its north and west, from the North Pacific Ocean to the south and east. It is the seventh-largest island in the world, and

270-543: The Great Kantō earthquake , which heavily damaged Tokyo in September 1923; and the earthquake of March 2011 , which moved the northeastern part of the island by varying amounts of as much as 5.3 m (17 ft) while causing devastating tsunamis). The highest peak is the active volcano Mount Fuji at 3,776 m (12,388 ft), which makes Honshu the world's 7th highest island . There are many rivers, including

300-728: The Kurushima Kaikyō Bridge ; Shimotsui-Seto Bridge , Hitsuishijima Bridge , Iwakurojima Bridge , Yoshima Bridge , Kita Bisan-Seto Bridge , and the Minami Bisan-Seto Bridge ), the Seikan Tunnel connects Honshu with Hokkaidō, and the Kanmonkyo Bridge and Kanmon Tunnel connect Honshu with Kyūshū . These are notable flora and fauna of Honshu. Being on the Ring of Fire , the island of Honshu

330-702: The Railway Technical Research Institute and Railway Information Systems Co., Ltd. To cover various non-railway business areas, each regional operator in the JR Group has its own group of subsidiary companies with names like "JR East Group" and "JR Shikoku Group". Owned by JRTT Owned by JRTT Owned by JRTT Owned by the 7 railway companies above JR maintains a nationwide railway network as well as common ticketing rules that it inherited from JNR. Passengers may travel across several JR companies without changing trains and without purchasing separate tickets. However, trains running across

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360-533: The Shinano River , Japan's longest. The Japanese Alps span the width of Honshu, from the 'Sea of Japan' coast to the Pacific shore. The climate is generally humid subtropical in western Japan and humid continental in the north. Honshu has a total population of 104 million people, according to a 2017 estimate, 81.3% of the entire population of Japan. The largest city is Tokyo (population: 13,988,129),

390-742: The Shinkansen high-speed rail lines) and commuter rail service. JR Hokkaido , JR Shikoku , and JR Freight ( JRF ) are governed by the Act for the Passenger Railway Companies and Japan Freight Railway Company  [ ja ] , also known as the JR Companies Act , and are under the control of the public Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency (JRTT), while JR East , JR Central , JR West , and JR Kyushu are completely floated in

420-582: The second-most populous after the Indonesian island of Java . Honshu had a population of 104 million as of 2017 , constituting 81.3% of the entire population of Japan, and mostly concentrated in the coastal areas and plains. Approximately 30% of the total population resides in the Greater Tokyo Area on the Kantō Plain . As the historical center of Japanese cultural and political power,

450-541: The 1970s, passenger and freight business had declined, and fare increases had failed to keep up with higher labor costs. The JR Group companies were formed out of the privatization of the Japanese National Railways in 1987. In 1987, the government of Japan took steps to divide and privatize JNR. While division of operations began in April of that year, privatization was not immediate: initially,

480-458: The boundaries of JR companies have been reduced. JR maintains the same ticketing rules based on the JNR rules and has an integrated reservation system known as MARS (jointly developed with Hitachi ). Some types of tickets (passes), such as Japan Rail Pass and Seishun 18 Ticket , are issued as "valid for all JR lines" and accepted by all passenger JR companies. Various unions represent workers at

510-422: The boundaries. The Shirasagi train service between Nagoya and Kanazawa , for instance, uses JR West rolling stock but the segment of track between Nagoya and Maibara is owned by JR Central, whose crew manage the train on that section. Japan Freight Railway Company operates all freight service on the network previously owned by JNR. In addition, the group includes two non-operating companies. These are

540-540: The capital of Japan and part of the Greater Tokyo Area , the most populous metropolitan area in the world. Honshu is connected to the islands of Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku by tunnels and bridges. Three bridge systems have been built across the islands of the Inland Sea between Honshu and Shikoku ( Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and the Ōnaruto Bridge ; Shin-Onomichi Bridge , Innoshima Bridge , Ikuchi Bridge , Tatara Bridge , Ōmishima Bridge , Hakata–Ōshima Bridge , and

570-511: The classification of its rail lines as either main, secondary, or branch lines. Prior to the change, the Dosan, Kōtoku, Tokushima, and Yosan Lines had all been main lines. Each line is color-coded and labeled with a letter, in conjunction with which a number is assigned to each station on the line. For example, Naruto Station on the Naruto Line (labeled N) is numbered N10. Although this method

600-596: The different JR Group companies, such as the National Railway Workers' Union , All Japan Construction, Transport and General Workers' Union , Doro-Chiba , and the Japan Confederation of Railway Workers' Unions . Honsh%C5%AB Honshu ( 本州 , Honshū , pronounced [hoꜜɰ̃ɕɯː] ; lit.   ' main island ' ) , historically called Akitsushima ( 秋津島 , lit.   ' Dragonfly island ' ) ,

630-719: The economy along the northwestern Sea of Japan coast is largely based on fishing and agriculture. The island is linked to the other three major Japanese islands by a number of bridges and tunnels. The island primarily shares two climates, with Northern Honshu having a mainly humid continental climate while the south has a humid subtropical climate . The name of the island, Honshū ( 本州 ) , directly translates to "main province" or "original land" in English. Humans first arrived in Honshu approximately 37,000 years ago, and likely earlier. The first humans to arrive in Honshu were Stone Age hunter-gatherers from Northeast Asia, likely following

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660-470: The government retained ownership of the companies. Privatization of some of the companies began in the early 1990s. By October 2016, all of the shares of JR East, JR Central, JR West and JR Kyushu had been offered to the market and they are now publicly traded. On the other hand, all of the shares of JR Hokkaido, JR Shikoku and JR Freight are still owned by Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency , an independent administrative institution of

690-597: The island includes several past Japanese capitals, including Kyōto , Nara , and Kamakura . Much of the island's southern shore forms part of the Taiheiyō Belt , a megalopolis that spans several of the Japanese islands. Honshu contains Japan's highest mountain, Mount Fuji, and its largest lake, Lake Biwa . Most of Japan's industry is located in a belt running along Honshu's southern coast, from Tokyo to Nagoya , Kyōto , Osaka , Kobe , and Hiroshima ; by contrast,

720-617: The meltdown of 3 nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant , leading to the Fukushima nuclear disaster . Honshu island generates around US$ 3.5 trillion or more than 80% of Japan's GDP . Fruit, vegetables, grains, rice and cotton make up the main produce grown in Honshu. The Tohoku region, spanning the north-eastern part of the island, is notable for its rice production, with 65% of cultivated land being rice paddy fields – almost

750-786: The migration of ice age megafauna . Surviving artifacts from this period include finely-crafted stone blades, similar to those found in Siberia . Honshu was the target of devastating air raids during the Pacific War of World War II . The first air raid to strike Honshu and the other home islands was the Doolittle Raid . With the introduction of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress , the firebombing of Tokyo culminated in Operation Meetinghouse ,

780-640: The most destructive air raid in human history, which destroyed 16 square miles (41 km ; 10,000 acres) of central Tokyo , leaving an estimated 100,000 civilians dead, and over one million homeless. The war ended with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki shortly before Japan's surrender and signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on September 2, 1945, on board the USS ; Missouri  (BB-63) in Tokyo Bay . The island

810-741: The most heavily used. The San'yō Shinkansen , connects the two largest cities in western Japan, Shin-Osaka in Osaka with Hakata Station in Fukuoka . Both the Tokaido Shinkansen and the Sanyo Shinkansen help form a continuous high-speed railway through the Taiheiyō Belt megalopolis. The island is divided into five nominal regions and contains 34 prefectures, including metropolitan Tokyo. Administratively, some smaller islands are included within these prefectures, notably including

840-744: The state. All the JR Group companies operating in the Honshū region are constituents of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX 100 indexes. [REDACTED]   [REDACTED] Hokkaido [REDACTED]   [REDACTED] East [REDACTED]   [REDACTED] Central [REDACTED]   [REDACTED] West [REDACTED]   [REDACTED] Shikoku [REDACTED]   [REDACTED] Kyushu The Japan Railways Group consists of seven operating companies and two other companies that do not provide rail service. The operating companies are organized into six passenger operators and

870-441: The stock market ; in addition, JR East, JR Central and JR West are constituents of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX 100 indices. Because the railways used to be owned by the government, Japanese people generally make a distinction between JR railways (including former JR lines that are now third sector ) and other private railways , and JR railways are almost always denoted differently from other private railways when shown on maps. By

900-404: The west coast, spanning Niigata, Yamagata , and Akita Prefectures. Most of Japan's copper, lead, zinc and chromite is located on Honshu, along with smaller, scattered deposits of gold, silver, arsenic, sulfur and pyrite . The Tokaido Shinkansen , opened in 1964 between Tokyo and Shin-Ōsaka , is Japan's first high-speed rail line. It is the world's oldest high-speed rail line and one of

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