By Shodai Niki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) has teamed up with Japan Airlines Co. to quickly transport perishable foods and other products abroad by combining Shinkansen bullet train services with international air freight.
The two firms agreed to cooperate on cargo delivery and customs procedures to reduce transport time. By supporting the export of such products as perishable foods and machinery parts, they hope to provide a boost to local economies.
The service began on Tuesday, transporting marine products such as snow crabs to Taiwan from Fukui Prefecture, which lies on the Sea of Japan. The marine products were stored in unused space on a bullet train and transferred from Tsuruga Station to Tokyo Station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line. Then the products were shipped to Haneda Airport by truck and on to Taiwan via a JAL flight.
Generally, it takes more than 30 hours to transport goods from Fukui Prefecture to Taiwan. However, the new service has decreased shipping time to about 12 hours and 40 minutes.
JR East and JAL plan to promote the service to private companies and local governments to get more customers. For now, the service will connect Japan with four countries and regions, including Taiwan and Singapore.
"Going forward, we want to deliver products to more countries and regions, and expand the range of goods we handle," said Koichi Takagi, a senior executive officer at JR East, at a press conference on Tuesday. "We are looking forward to broadening the possibilities of our transport system."
----
This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.
YDN-M0000172476-1
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 14, 2026 20:21 ET (01:21 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 The Yomiuri Shimbun
Comments