Japan prides itself on having one of the safest passenger rail systems in the world. The country relies on the rails to move 60 million people every day. The average person makes 130 rail trips a year.
Japan is a long narrow country - a string of islands including four major ones. Mountains cover 70 per cent of its surface. Most people live near the coast - and there's little land available to expand the highway system.
A large crowd gather around derailed train cars as they watch firefighters try to rescue people trapped in the derailed train cars after a derailment at Amagasaki, near Osaka, western Japan, Monday, April 25, 2005. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)
High-speed trains connect only the largest cities. The rest of the rail network is made up of trains that travel at speeds most Canadian rail commuters are used to.
Engineers are under pressure to keep their trains running on time and, for the most part, they succeed. The system is highly automated and delays are rare.
Investigations into train accidents often result in charges against rail company employees. In March 2000, a court ruled that three managers were guilty of professional negligence resulting in death and injury in a train accident that had killed 42 people nine years earlier.
On April 6, 2005, prosecutors indicted a rail employee on a charge of professional negligence in connection with an accident at a manually-operated level crossing. Four women were killed after they walked past an open barrier into the path of an oncoming train.
Some of Japan's worst rail accidents:
April 25, 2005:
A commuter train derails in Amagasaki, western Japan, killing at least 94 and injuring more than 450. It is Japan's worst rail disaster in four decades.
Feb. 25, 2002:
At least 77 people are injured after an express train rams another passenger train in Munakata, in southwestern Japan. Officials said the driver of the express train went through a signal telling him to stop, and the train hit the rear of another train that had stopped after hitting a wild boar. None of the injuries was life threatening.
Dec. 18, 2000:
The driver of a train is killed after brake problems cause his train to overrun a station in northwestern Japan. The train rams another train head-on. The two single-car trains were carrying about 35 passengers, most of whom were injured. It was the second fatal train accident in a year.
March 8, 2000:
A subway train hits a derailed train in Tokyo, killing five people and injuring 33.
May 14, 1991:
Forty-two people are killed when two trains collide head-on near Shigaraki, western Japan.
Dec. 5, 1988:
The driver of a train and several passengers are killed when one train hits the rear of another at Higashi-Nakano station in Tokyo. The drivers union blames a move by the rail company - which had been privatized a year earlier - to reduce travel times.
Nov. 6, 1972:
A fire in a dining car kills 30 people in Hokuriku Tunnel, in northwestern Japan.
Nov. 9, 1963:
A crash involving a freight train and two passenger trains in Tsurumi, outside Tokyo, kills 162 people.
May 3, 1962:
A train crashes into the wreckage of a collision between a freight train and a commuter train north of Tokyo, killing 163 people and injuring 400.
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