SHINKANSEN, DREAM OF LINKING THREE INDOCHINA COUNTRIES.

On the morning of March 26, 2010, The Center for Vietnamese and South East Asian Studies at the Social Sciences and Humanities University, Ho Chi Minh City held a conference on the current and future high-speed rail systems in Japan. Professor Sasama Hiroshi from Tokyo-Joho University, Japan, presented on “Japan’s current and future high speed railways,” a topic of great importance all over the world because of current trends of global warming, transportation issues, and the increasing trend to move people eco-friendly and efficiently. Japan’s current rail system is not only one of the most efficient in the world, but also creates substantially less pollution than cars, buses, and planes. Also, in the near future Japan’s Maglev (magnetic levitation) train will compete with plane transportation, quickly becoming the fastest, safest, and most reliable means of transportation.

Professor Hiroshi’s presentation was deep and rich in information pertaining to Japan’s current and future rail systems. Hiroshi opened up with a overarching history of the different rail systems in Japan, starting in 1807, to 1964 when Japan released its first high-speed railway that went 200km/h, and current developments today. It wasn’t until 1984 when France released its TGV high-speed train that another country competed with Japan’s rail system. Japan’s current system and means of operations is based off of three fundamental systems: Automatic Train Control, Centralized Train Control and Programmed Traffic Control. These three systems are necessities because when a train is traveling at an average 300 km/h> by the time the human eye recognizes an object ahead or an accident about to occur the train will have likely already hit the object ahead. Therefore, Japan’s rail system is highly dependent on computing power and the ability to systemize everything and monitor it 24/7. Another technique of monitoring and keeping the rail system in check is the “Dr. Yellow” train that constantly runs along the tracks that checks for possible problems with the rails, tunnels, and marker systems that could result in an accident. Professor Hiroshi also emphasized the similarity between Japan and Vietnam’s geography, with the exception of Japans’ earthquake threats, Vietnam would be an ideal fit for Japan’s current rail system.

In closing Professor Hiroshi discussed the future of Japan’s rail system, which began in 1972 when the first Maglev train was produced. Today there are test grounds in Japan where a current Maglev train can average 500 km/h, with a future maximum speed of 700km/h once the appropriate superconductor magnets are at the right temperature. This conference brought great interest from students, government officials from the transportation department, and foreign researchers to come and understand how Japan has been the leading innovator of high-speed mass transit rail systems for over forty years.

Oliver, Fulbright researcher

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