I Visited the World's Busiest Train Station

Summary

東京の新宿駅は世界最大の交通ハブであり、日平均300万人の利用者を抱える。このビデオでは、新線や私鉄を含む多くの路線が集まる新宿の効率性と都市計画の模範について紹介。駅周辺には活気ある商店街や多様な飲食店があり、都市の機能と形が一体となった新宿の魅力を探求する。

Takeaways

• 🚉 東京には非常に多くの鉄道があり、その中心にあるのが新宿駅です。
• 🌆 新宿駅は世界で最も忙しい駅で、毎日約300万人が利用しています。
• 🗺️ 新宿駅は14の鉄道・地下鉄路線が交差する重要なハブであり、都市内の移動に欠かせません。
• 🚇 新宿駅には新幹線は停まりませんが、東京駅や品川駅、上野駅で新幹線が利用できます。
• 🚶‍♂️ 新宿駅は周囲の地域を結びつける優れた都市計画の例であり、歩行者にとっても快適です。
• 🚌 新宿駅には長距離バスや空港リムジンバスの主要ターミナルである新宿高速バスターミナルがあります。
• 🚏 駅には200以上の出口があり、ナビゲーションが非常に重要です。
• 🎨 新宿駅内には回転するアート展示などの魅力的な要素もあり、単なる交通ハブ以上の役割を果たしています。
• 🏢 新宿駅は鉄道会社が所有する不動産が多く、その収益が鉄道運営の財源の一部となっています。
• 🚦 新宿駅周辺は広い道路で分断されている場所もありますが、歩行者のための橋や地下通路も充実しています。

Q & A

東京にはどのくらいの鉄道や地下鉄の路線がありますか？

東京には14の鉄道と地下鉄の路線があり、加えて新幹線も頻繁に発着しています。

世界で最も利用者が多い駅はどこですか？

世界で最も利用者が多い駅は新宿駅で、1日あたり約300万人が利用します。

新宿駅が忙しい理由は何ですか？

新宿駅が忙しい理由は、多くの目的地があることと、複数の異なる交通路線の接続点であるためです。

新宿駅にはどのくらいの出入口がありますか？

新宿駅には200以上の出入口があり、十数箇所の改札口からアクセスできます。

新宿駅の構造について説明してください。

新宿駅は複数の階層にわたって広がっており、一部のエリアは改札の内側にあるため、地図上では複雑に見えませんが実際には複雑です。

日本の電車の遅延状況はどうですか？

東京の電車は約95%の確率で時間通りに運行しており、遅延が発生しても通常5分未満です。

新宿駅周辺の都市環境はどのように支えられていますか？

新宿駅周辺の都市環境は、駅の利用者数が多いため、多くの独立したビジネスが繁栄しています。また、駅は近隣の多くの場所と直結しており、徒歩圏内で多くの施設にアクセスできます。

日本の鉄道会社はどのように収益を上げていますか？

多くの日本の鉄道会社は、不動産の開発やリースを行うことで収益を上げています。乗客を運ぶこと自体よりも、不動産からの収益が重要となることが多いです。

新宿駅にはどのような施設や設備がありますか？

新宿駅には多くのレストランや自動販売機、荷物預かり所、無料で清潔な公共トイレなどの施設があり、各鉄道会社の切符売り場もあります。

日本の改札機は他国と比べてどのような特徴がありますか？

日本の改札機は非常に高速で応答し、ICカードや紙の切符を素早く処理します。多くの改札機はデフォルトで開いており、有効な切符がない場合にのみ閉じます。

Outlines

00:00

🚇 シンジュク駅の驚くべき規模と効率

東京のシンジュク駅は、世界で最も混雑している駅の一つであり、1日あたり約300万人の利用者がいます。東京駅にある新幹線とは違い、シンジュク駅には多くの目的地や交通機関への接続点として機能する多くの路線が存在します。駅周辺は非常に効率的で、都市計画の良い例であり、多くの人々を移動させるだけでなく、周辺地域の活性化にも寄与しています。

05:06

🌆 シンジュク駅の周辺環境と都市構造

シンジュク駅は、機能性の高い交通ハブであり、周辺に商店やレストラン、そして伝統的な通りが存在します。駅の多機能性と都市計画の良さが、独立したビジネスが活況を呈する繁華街を形成しています。また、駅の利用者が多いため、多くの人々が効率的に移動することができ、都市の質を高めることに寄与しています。

10:08

🏢 シンジュク駅の直結施設と多機能性

シンジュク駅からは多くの施設に室内で直結しており、ショッピングモールや地下道、さらには他のホテルやレストランなどがあります。駅は夜間も活きており、閉まる時間は午前12:30で、その後もバスなど他の交通手段は利用可能ではありません。駅内には多くのレストランやコンビニエンスストア、自動販売機があり、多くの人々が利用しています。

15:10

🛠️ シンジュク駅の改修と鉄道会社のビジネスモデル

シンジュク駅は常に建設中であり、駅のレイアウトを改善し、より分かりやすい空間にしようと努力しています。鉄道会社は私鉄企業であり、不動産開発を通じて利益を上げています。しかし、鉄道事業自体は利益を出すことの難しいため、鉄道会社の多くが不動産開発を通じてその不足を補っています。

20:11

🌐 シンジュク駅の交通網と都市計画の模範

シンジュク駅は、多くの人々を安全に運ぶだけでなく、周辺エリアとの連携も完璧に行われているため、都市計画の模範となっています。駅自体は清潔で、利便性が高く、多くの人々にとっては生活に欠かせない存在です。また、鉄道会社の私鉄化は、交通網の複雑さをもたらしていますが、それでもシンジュク駅は他の都市にとっても素晴らしい公共交通のモデルとなっています。

📹 独立創作者のビデオ制作とNebulaの紹介

このビデオは、独立したビデオクリエイターが制作しており、実際の場所を訪れて撮影することで、よりリアルな体験を提供しています。クリエイターはNebulaというプラットフォームを通じて、広告やスポンサーなしに視聴者に直接コンテンツを提供しています。Nebulaは独立創作者を支援するためだけでなく、高品質なコンテンツを提供するプラットフォームとして機能しています。

Keywords

💡新宿駅

新宿駅は東京を中心とする鉄道や地下鉄のハブであり、1日あたり約300万人の人々が通過する。この駅は、都市計画や交通の効率性において非常に重要な役割を果たしており、ビデオの主題である都市交通網の中心として取り上げられています。

💡都市計画

都市計画とは、都市の構造や機能を計画的に整えるプロセスを指し、ビデオでは新宿駅がその周囲の地域をどのように促進するかが示されています。特に、新宿駅がどのようにして周囲の商店街や住居、そして交通網と調和的に結びついているかが強調されています。

💡鉄道スパゲッティ

「鉄道スパゲッティ」とは、複雑で絡み合った鉄道網を表現する言葉で、ビデオでは東京の鉄道網が非常に複雑であることが強調されています。この表現は、新宿駅の中心的役割をより一層強調するものです。

💡山手線

山手線は東京を中心とする環状の鉄道線で、ビデオ内で重要な都市交通機関として紹介されています。1日あたり400万人の乗客を運ぶとされ、東京の主要な駅を結ぶ重要な役割を果たしています。

💡交通の効率性

交通の効率性とは、人々や物資を迅速かつ確実に運ぶことができる交通システムの能力を指します。ビデオでは、新宿駅がどのようにして多くの人々を効率的に移動させるかが説明されており、これが都市の質を高める上で重要な要素とされています。

💡私鉄

私鉄とは、民間企業が運営する鉄道のことであり、ビデオでは新宿駅を運営する私鉄企業が駅の異なるセクションを管理し、独自のプラットフォームや改札口を持つことが示されています。これは鉄道の私営化というよりは、都市交通の多様性と複雑さを象徴するものです。

💡改札

改札とは、鉄道や地下鉄の駅で乗客が乗車する前に通過するゲートを指します。ビデオでは、日本の改札システムが非常に迅速であることが強調されており、これは交通の効率性において重要な要素となっています。

💡都市貢献

都市貢献とは、都市の機能や環境を向上させることを目的とした取り組みを指します。ビデオでは、新宿駅が周辺地域の繁栄や都市空間の向上に寄与していることが示されています。

💡鉄道の私営化

鉄道の私営化とは、鉄道事業を政府から民間企業に委託することを指し、ビデオでは日本の鉄道事業者が不動産開発を通じて利益を上げていることが触れられています。これは鉄道事業のビジネスモデルと都市開発の関係を探求する重要な観点です。

💡多摩都市モノレール

多摩都市モノレールは、ビデオ内で新宿駅から東に向かう地下鉄の一つとして触れられています。これは東京の複雑な交通網の一部であり、新宿駅と他の地域を結ぶ役割を果たしています。

💡駅周辺開発

駅周辺開発とは、鉄道駅の周辺地域を再開発することを指し、ビデオでは新宿駅の周辺に商店やレストラン、そして住居が存在し、駅が都市の活力を維持する上で重要な役割を果たしていることが強調されています。

Highlights

东京拥有众多的火车线路，包括14条铁路和地铁线路以及频繁发车的高速新干线。

世界上最繁忙的火车站并非东京站，而是新宿站。

新宿站每天约有300万人通过，数量惊人。

新宿站不仅是高效的交通枢纽，也是周边社区发展的优秀典范。

新宿站繁忙的原因包括其作为多条交通线路的连接点以及拥有许多吸引人的目的地。

新宿站的布局虽然在地图上看起来不复杂，但实际上分布在多个不同的层面上。

新宿站的导向系统表现良好，只要知道铁路线的名字并注意观察，就相对容易找到目的地。

新宿站拥有超过200个出口，通过十多个检票口连接。

日本的新干线高速列车不在新宿站停靠，而是在东京站等其他站点。

新宿站的检票口响应速度非常快，与其他任何国家的检票口相比都有显著优势。

新宿站与周围环境的融合度很高，不仅仅是一个交通枢纽，更是整个社区的中心。

新宿站的周边地区因其巨大的人流量而支持了许多有趣独立商业的发展。

新宿站的站台虽然实用但不显眼，但它们能够高效地运送大量乘客。

新宿站的每个车厢门的位置都在站台上标记，这在日本很常见，有助于乘客排队和下车。

新宿站的改造计划预计在2047年完成，第一阶段将在2035年完成，将改善车站布局并提高导航的便利性。

尽管新宿站是一个私营铁路公司运营的车站，但它的运营效率和客户服务都有显著提升。

新宿站的运营展示了公共交通的高效实施，应该成为其他城市效仿的模范。

Transcripts

Tokyo has a lot of trains. And that’s an understatement.

So you might think that with  14 rail and metro lines, 

and Shinkansen high-speed trains  departing every few minutes, 

That the busiest train station in  the world would be Tokyo Station. 

But it’s not.

This is a map of the trains in Tokyo. Oh wait, sorry, that’s just the metro. 

This is the full map. Well, most of the lines anyway. 

A few private lines are missing. But if you look closely at this map,  

you’ll notice one station at the  centre of all this railroad spaghetti. 

Shinjuku Station. 

About 3 million people pass through Shinjuku  Station every day, which is an insane number. 

Especially considering that the  busiest train station outside of  

Japan, which is Paris Gare du Nord, New York's Grand Central Terminal, 

or Penn Station, depending on  who you ask, transports only  

about 700 thousand passengers per day. But despite, or rather, because of,  

the massive number of people transported, the  area around Shinjuku supports some great urbanism. 

Because Shinjuku isn’t just a  ridiculously efficient transportation hub, 

it’s also an excellent example of how an  effective train station can make the surrounding  

neighbourhood truly great. [NJB Intro] 

The first thing you’ll notice  about my footage of Shinjuku is  

just how many people are in every shot. When I film in public places I usually  

prefer to go at less-busy times of the day. Afterall, I’m here to show you the station itself,  

not hundreds of random people obscuring the  station, but that’s just not feasible here. 

This station is busy. Really busy. 

At basically all times of the day. There are a total of 3 metro lines and 9  

different rail lines that service this station Including local and inter-city trains. 

But despite being the busiest station  in Japan, there are no Shinkansen  

high-speed trains that stop at Shinjuku. Tokyo station is still the place where you’ll  

find the most Shinkansen, though they also stop at  other Tokyo stations, such as Shinagawa and Ueno. 

Shinjuku is busy for two reasons: it’s a  place with a lot of desirable destinations, 

but it also serves as a connection  between multiple different transit lines. 

About half of the 3 million  daily users of Shinjuku are  

transferring from one line to another. The station is very centrally located,  

so many journeys within Tokyo  involve a change at Shinjuku. 

One of the most important rail lines in all  of Tokyo is the Yamanote line, a circular  

line that goes around the centre of the city. This one line alone carries up to 4 million  

passengers per day across all of its  stations, and it connects some of the  

most important rail stations in the city. There are also multiple bus stations. 

The Shinjuku Expressway Bus Terminal is  the primary bus terminal for long-distance  

highway buses and airport limousine buses. But there’s also the West Exit Bus Terminal  

with a constant stream of local city buses  and regional buses entering and exiting. 

As well as several other bus stops  around various exits to the station. 

The layout of the station doesn’t  look that complicated on a map,  

but it’s spread across multiple different levels. And some of those areas are behind fare gates,  

so you can’t always take the  shortest path through the middle. 

This incredible drawing by architect Tomoyuki  Tanaka gives an idea of how it’s laid out,  

though this drawing is out of date  so don’t go memorising this, OK? 

But in general, the wayfinding in Shinjuku  is pretty good, so if you know the name of  

your rail line, and you pay attention, it’s  reasonably easy to get to where you’re going. 

But you really do need to pay close  attention to avoid missing a sign. 

After a few days of staying nearby  and using the station multiple times  

per day I started to get the hang of it. But there were still a few times where I  

got lost or ended up on the opposite  side from where I wanted to be. 

I’ve been reassured by several Japanese  colleagues that even regular users get  

lost sometimes when they’re taking  a different route than usual, 

and I’m going to assume that’s  correct and they weren’t just  

taking pity on my inability to navigate. In some places navigation is placed on the  

floor making it really clear which  way to go to get to your train. 

Just follow the right stripe and it’ll  take you right to where you’re going! 

I also appreciated this message on the stairs that  effectively tells you not to take these stairs. 

I was going to individually talk about  every entrance and exit to the station,  

but then I read that there are over 200 exits accessed by over a dozen fare gates and I  

decided that that would be really boring content. But just know that if you’re  

meeting someone at the West gate, this is different from the Central West gate,

which is different again from  the West Underground gate. 

And don’t confuse the South Gate with the much nicer New South Gate.

The major exits are labelled however,  

and navigation apps like Google Maps will  tell you which exit brings you closest  

to your destination, so that’s nice. And I love the ticket gates in Japan;  

they are SO fast to respond compared  to ticket gates in any other country. 

When you tap your IC card, the gates  respond with ninja-like reflexes. 

And a paper ticket pops out the other side way  faster than I would think is even possible. 

And it’s been this way for years. I remember the gates reading tickets  

this fast when visiting Japan over 15  years ago, so it always surprises me how  

slow ticket gates still are in other countries. Some fare gates are set to be open by default,  

assuming that the person will tap or insert  a valid ticket, and only close if they don't,  

speeding things up even more. For the busiest train station  

in the world you might think that Shinjuku  station would be some kind of grand building. 

After all, Tokyo station looks like this. But it’s not. 

The station itself isn’t really a recognizable  building distinct from any other because it’s so  

well integrated into everything else around it. Shinjuku is mostly a train  

station of function over form. With many corridors that are purely utilitarian. 

But they have brightened up other  parts with rotating art exhibits. 

I particularly enjoyed this pixel art. The train platforms themselves are also very  

utilitarian, and not very impressive-looking. But they do their job well and manage to  

move hundreds of people at a time. One really nice thing is that the  

position where each car door will arrive is marked  on the platforms, which is typical all over Japan. 

This is important for so many reasons. They make it very clear where you should  

queue up for the train, so that a space can  be cleared for passengers who are exiting.

Some trains have different types of carriages,  for wheelchairs, reserved seats, first class,  

or any other special type of car. So these labels make it very easy  

for you to stand in the right place for  whatever type of carriage you require. 

And when the cars are numbered, navigation apps  can show which car you should ride in so that,  

when you arrive, you are at the  closest escalator for your exit, 

or closest to whichever train  line you need to transfer to. 

These kind of details makes for a really  nice experience as a transit rider of course, 

But it also means that people arrive and  depart at the right part of the platform,  

so that everything can run more smoothly. This is part of the reason why the dwell times,  

which is the time a train stops at  a station, can be so short in Japan. 

There’s this common meme that Japanese trains  always run exactly on time and everybody will  

commit Seppuku if it is a few seconds late. And while a Japanese train company did issue  

a formal apology for a train  that left 20 seconds early, 

Trains in Japan do run late sometimes. When there are so many trains running on  

a rail system, a small delay to one train  can cascade through the entire system,  

and I experienced a few train delays while  I was in Japan, especially at rush hour. 

However, trains in Tokyo run on time about  95% of the time, and even then a typical  

delay is usually less than about 5 minutes. The other thing foreigners associate with  

Japanese trains are oshiya or “pushers”,  the people in white gloves, making sure  

that every train is pushed to capacity. I didn’t see any examples of this myself  

at Shinjuku, and several people  told me that they are rare today.

This is because train capacity in  Tokyo has increased significantly  

over the past 40 years, work hours and  locations have become more flexible, and  

passenger volumes are lower after the pandemic. During rush hour, at several stations, I saw staff  

controlling crowds and making sure that trains  operated smoothly, but no pushing was required. 

If the train was too full, many people  would just wait for the next one which  

was coming along in a minute or two anyway. Rush hour was definitely crowded but I never  

found the crowds to be overwhelming Though it probably helps that  

I’m taller than everyone else. Shinjuku station is impressive  

in its efficiency, but it’s also impressive just  how well it integrates with everything around it. 

In previous videos I’ve talked  about my “Hauptbahnhof test”,  

where I judge a city based on how comfortable  it is to walk out of the train station, 

and how easy it is to transfer  to other forms of public transit. 

This immediately lets me know the priority  a city places on its public transit,  

and how much respect it has for transit users. Which in the case of my hometown, is none. 

But for Shinjuku this “test” is  basically irrelevant, not just  

because it isn’t technically a Hauptbahnhof, but also because Shinjuku Station isn’t just  

a train station building, it’s the central hub  that connects the entire neighbourhood together. 

The station is directly connected to dozens  of interesting streets with places to live,  

work, shop, or just meet up with friends. On the North side, just by the metro exits,  

you’ll find Omoide yokochō (oh moi day yo ko cho), a traditional alley, with incredible  

hole-in-the-wall restaurants and bars. This is a great place to stop  

by for some beer and yakitori. This place used to be called “piss alley” but  

thankfully, they now have public restrooms. While this traditional alley  

is particularly interesting, Shinjuku is surrounded by lots of great streets. 

These kinds of streets are found all  over Japan and they are the key to  

the great urbansim in many Japanese cities. But I’ll talk about that in a future video. 

The Shinjuku area is well-known for its  unique bars, restaurants, and shops, 

And it’s a lively neighbourhood at night, too. The massive amount of foot traffic generated by  

the busy station makes it possible  for all of these interesting  

independent businesses to flourish. There is literally no other method  

of transportation that can move around 3  million people a day and support such a  

high-quality walkable urban environment around it. A highway capable of moving 3 million people per  

day would have to be well over 50 lanes wide, and  at that point, there wouldn’t be any city left. 

Which is why trains are ultimately the  superior form of mass transportation for  

cities, because they actively promote great  urban places, rather than bulldozing them. 

Of course Shinjuku station is also connected  indoors directly to several destinations as well. 

On the North-East side of the  station there’s the metro mall,  

an underground pathway connecting Shinjuku  station to the metro stations to the East. 

Following this for about 200 metres underground  will bring you to Shinjuku-sanchome station,  

serviced by 3 different metro lines. In total, there are 5 train and  

metro stations that are accessible from  Shinjuku station without going outside,  

as well as additional 6 stations  within 500 metres of an exit. 

So it’s not surprising that Shinjuku  station is busy at almost all times of  

the day but it does actually close when the  last trains stop running at around 12:30 AM. 

Which I completely forgot about, so after  going out drinking with a friend in Shibuya,  

I had absolutely no way to get  a train back to Shinjuku at 1AM. 

That is, unless I wanted to wait for  trains to start running again at 4:30. 

It did surprise me that I  couldn't even take a bus though. 

For all its faults, Toronto actually  has a pretty good night bus network  

that can get you home after a night of drinking. Which is why the bus that runs along the subway  

line is famously known as the “vomit comet”. But when it is open, Shinjuku station has  

all of the amenities you would  expect from a major train station. 

There are many restaurants and other  places to get something to eat. 

And lots of vending machines  if you want something quicker. 

Or need to buy flowers on your way home. There are several places to lock  

up your bags at the station too. And they were very well-used when I was there. 

There are also lots and lots of free,  clean, and accessible public restrooms,  

which is typical for Japanese train stations. You might want to take the hint, Europe. 

There are also ticket  offices for various railways, 

Where you can also pick up tickets and seat  reservations for long-distance Shinkansen  

trains, and other trains that don’t  necessarily go through Shinjuku itself. 

Like all Japanese train stations,  it is impeccably clean, too. 

Despite having minimal garbage bins. People tell me that this is because  

Japanese people are deeply concerned  about their environment and will carry  

rubbish home rather than littering. And yeah, that may play a part. 

But there are also dozens of people who  go around cleaning up the place too,  

which certainly helps as well. All levels and platforms at Shinjuku  

station are accessible for people in wheelchairs,  and every train I saw had level boarding. 

As far as I’m concerned, level boarding  should be an absolute requirement  

for all new transit systems everywhere. Of course in practice it can still be difficult  

to navigate Shinjuku station in a wheelchair as  elevators can get very busy and there are still  

several exits that only have stairs, but this is getting better with every  

new construction project. And Shinjuku is basically  

always under construction. A couple years ago a 72  

billion yen renovation was started to improve the  station’s layout and make it easier to navigate. 

For example, they’re going to create another  path to go from east to west without having to  

go through the ticket gates, which would be nice. You can also see from these potato-quality images  

provided by the municipality that this will be  possible via a new pedestrianised roof deck. 

The eloquently named Tokyo Municipal Project  Plan for Shinjuku Station Proximity District Land  

Readjustment Project is absolutely massive and it  is expected to be completed on March 31 … of 2047. 

But apparently Phase 1 will be complete in  2035, so some of us will live to see some of it. 

These will be very welcome improvements because  today, the North and South sides of the station  

are bisected by this terrible road. Tokyo has way too many of these  

ridiculously wide roads. Fortunately there is an option  

of taking this pedestrian bridge, but this doesn’t bring you to the  

rest of the station, it brings you outside. 

Next to the eggslut. It’s much better to stay underground,  

that is, if you’re able to navigate  it, because it’s very easy to get lost. 

It’s ridiculous that hundreds of people taking  the most direct route between sections of the  

world’s busiest train station need to wait  for a few dozen motor vehicles to pass. 

But this shouldn’t be too surprising because  despite being a city covered in trains,  

Tokyo can be remarkably car-friendly at times. Thankfully the station is built in a way that you  

can generally avoid any busy roads around it. Instead of a terrible road, the New South  

Gate is pedestrianised. With this nice seating area. 

But don’t even think of doing anything fun  because this is still private property. 

There’s also a pedestrian  bridge over the tracks here, 

which is a great place to watch  trains go in and out of the station. 

This kid was lovin’ it and didn’t want to leave. At other exits there are direct connections from  

the station to pedestrian bridges over busy roads. Other exits bypass the roads altogether and  

go directly to smaller streets And there are several exits that  

directly connect to buildings around the station. In fact, it’s sometimes difficult to determine  

where “train station” stops and “shopping mall”  begins, and this is very much intentional. 

You might have noticed that the Keio  department store is above the Keio line trains, 

and the Odakyu department store  is above the Odakyu lines. 

The majority of Japan's railways are run  by private companies, not the government. 

Keio and Odakyu have always been private,  but JR East was privatised in 1987. 

There have been some benefits to this approach,  with some railways becoming more operationally  

efficient and improving customer service. But privatisation has also brought a constant  

pressure on the government to allow  rail companies to reduce service on  

less-profitable routes, and to increase  ticket prices to improve profitability. 

It really annoys me when governments  talk about how railways need to be  

“run like a business” and need to turn a profit while they gleefully pour billions into wide roads  

and highways, almost all of which are totally  free to use and have no expectations of profit. 

Because ultimately, it’s difficult  to make transportation profitable. 

Which is why most Japanese railways  have an extensive real estate portfolio. 

They develop and lease the buildings next  to and above their rail stations, and use  

the passenger train operations as a way  to make their real estate more valuable. 

In fact, the real estate can become more  important than railway operations themselves. 

The largest company serving  Shinjuku station is JR East.

Their 2023 financials show 1.6 trillion  in revenue from transportation, and about  

770 billion from retail and real estate. But when you look at the profit, real estate  

was 146 billion while transportation  resulted in a loss of 24 billion yen.

And, to be fair, their transportation profits  are on track, pun intended, to recover in 2024,  

but real estate is clearly a major  source of profit for this company. 

So in some sense, these are not so much railway  companies and they are real estate developers who  

happen to run a bunch of trains. Of course, you could do just the  

retail and real estate bit, ignore all  that pesky low-profit railroad stuff 

and become the richest person in Japan. Which makes me wonder what the future  

is for this model. Will some of these  

“property companies with railroads” decide  to someday just ditch the railroads and build  

giant American-style shopping centres next  to those sweet, free, publicly-funded roads? 

The privatisation of Japanese  rail also makes Shinjuku  

station more fractured than you might expect. For example, you can’t just look and see that  

your train is leaving on, say, platform 3, because there are a lot of platform  

3s in this station. Each private rail operator  

manages their own section of the station, With their own platforms and fare gates. 

This makes ticketing more complicated than it  should be, as each rail operator will charge  

you when you pass through their ticket gates. Getting to your destination can have wildly  

different prices if you split that  journey between multiple operators.

Helpfully, Google Maps will show you how  much a trip will cost, but it is annoying  

to have to think this way. Drivers, on the other hand,  

just turn on their GPS and go. At most, they may want to avoid toll highways. 

They never have to think which company owns  the street that their destination is on. 

There were several times where  I was out filming around Tokyo. 

I had a JR East pass and a 24-hour Tokyo Metro pass that allowed  

me to take trains on either system for free. But when I got to the closest railway station  

it was owned by another railway  so both passes were useless. 

London, real London that is, used to have  many different train operators as well. 

The Metropolitan line was a different  operator than the District line for example.. 

Nowadays it’s all consolidated under the  government agency Transport for London, 

and fares are fully integrated, regardless  of which path you take to your destination. 

But despite the annoyances of navigating  between privatised rail systems, 

And the occasional exit  near a needlessly wide road, 

I’ve had good experiences using  Shinjuku station over the years 

And I think it’s an example of  well-implemented public transit that  

should be a model for other cities to follow. The station itself functions well and it safely  

transports millions of passengers each day, With trains that are clean,  

reliable, and frequent. But Shinjuku is also a transportation  

hub that seamlessly connects to everything around  it and makes the entire neighbourhood better. 

There is honestly so much that I could say about  transportation and urban planning in Japan. 

It’s absolutely fascinating. I have several more videos planned,  

so subscribe if you’d like to see them, But in the meantime I can highly recommend  

the channel Life Where I’m From, who  has made several videos on these topics. 

Check out his video about How Tokyo's  Subway Keeps On-time, Clean, and Safe,

And the best way to watch his videos  is ad-free and sponsor-free on Nebula. 

Nebula is the subscription streaming service built  by and for independent creators and their fans. 

There are lots of creators making  high-quality content on Nebula. 

I’ve mentioned Life Where I’m From, but there  are many more, including some great city and  

transportation channels like CityNerd, 

RM Transit, And City Beautiful. 

You’ll also find Nebula Originals,  content that’s only available on Nebula. 

Such as the Great Cities series by City Beautiful. My favourite part of Nebula is that it’s  

creator-owned, and it’s built to make  independent creators the best that they can be. 

So when you sign up, you’re directly  supporting independent creators. 

Not Just Bikes is a channel with original content. I don’t just summarise Wikipedia  

over a bunch of stock footage. When I make a video about a place,  

like Shinjuku station, I go there  in person and I film it myself, 

so that I can share the real experience of  what it’s like to be there, not just a list  

of facts that you could get from anywhere else. That’s time-consuming and expensive of course,  

but I believe it results in  much better quality videos. 

I would not be able to make videos like  this without the support I get from Nebula. 

When you sign up to Nebula with my code,  or even just watch my videos on Nebula,  

a part of your subscription goes directly  to supporting this channel, so that I  

can continue to make high-quality videos. You’ll also get to see all of my content early,  

before it gets to YouTube. All without any ads or  

sponsorship reads, like this one. If that sounds good to you then you  

can sign up at go.nebula.tv/notjustbikes  to get 40% off an annual subscription. 

That’s $30 per year or just $2.50 per month.  It’s a great deal for the content you get,  

but it’s also a great way to  support independent creators, too. 

Thanks for watching, and maybe next time  you’ll be watching early, on Nebula.