JapaneseRailwayHistory!!.docVIP

Japanese Railway HistoryDawn of Japanese Railways?Eiichi Aoki Railway construction plan and its social backgroundThe ruling Tokugawa?Shogunate,德川幕府 which had kept Japan in international isolation 闭关锁国for 260 years, was replaced by the Meiji 明治government in 1868. This marked the beginning of Japans modernization with the new government ending feudalism封建主义 and introducing Western ideas.Nationwide distribution systems already existed in the Edo period江户时代. Long-distance transportation over hundreds or thousands of kilometers was nothing new. People were sending rice from the Tohoku 东北地区and Hokuriku 北陆regions to Edo 江户(now Tokyo) and Osaka大阪. Fish-meal fertilizers were being sent from Hokkaido北海道 to regions along the Inland Sea. 濑户内海The main means of transport at that time was shipping. The key routes were formed by navigation along the coast and rivers.By contrast, road transport was primitive.原始的 Commodities were carried by men and horses because there were no carriages. Unlike in the West, there was a world of difference between sea and road transport in Japan. Large rivers were obstacles障碍 to road traffic because there were no bridges.Construction of railways, particularly between Tokyo and Yokohama, 横滨and Osaka 大阪and Kobe,神户 was suggested several times by foreigners and some Japanese prior to the Meiji government在江户时代之前. Their advocators proposed railways between ports and large cities but such plans never bore fruit 奏效due to the fall of the?Shogunate. If they had been implemented, foreigners might have won railway rights in Japan.In 1869, Harry Parkes,哈里巴夏礼 the British Minister to Japan, advocated主张 that railways would help modernize Japan insisting that the government build them as soon as possible. 1869 was another poor year for the rice harvest in Tohoku and Parkes explained that railways could carry rice quickly from other areas to Tohoku thereby 从而minimizing the effects of famine. The Meiji government agreed to build railways for political reasons