Tokyo Station


Tokyo Station before the Second World War started.

Tokyo Terminal is a train station located in the Marunouchi business district of Chiyoda, Tokyo,
near the imperial Palace grounds and the Ginza commercial district. It is the main intercity
rail terminal in Tokyo, and is the Japanese largest and busiest station in terms of the number
of trains, totaling about 4,000 trains per day. It is the starting point and terminus for most
of Japan's Shinkansen high-speed rail lines, and is served by many local and regional commuter
lines of Japan Railways, as well as the Tokyo Metro network.

A restored Tokyo Station to its former building: This photography was taken in March 2013.

(L) A souvenir snap photo of a child was taken in front of the high-speed Shinkansen on the platform of Tokyo Station.
(R) Passengers use an escalator to the platform of the commuter line, Chuo Main Line, at Tokyo Station.

Shinkansen trains at Tokyo Central Station


Tokyo Station to celebrate 100th anniversary

To commemorate the 1914 opening, there will be a series of festive events starting this month,
such as the Yamanote loop line running a train decorated in homage to the red-brick station building,
and a special exhibit tracing the 100 years of the operations at the gallery of Tokyo Station.

The original station building was partly destroyed by a fire in an air raid in May 1945, near the end
of World War II. The building, which was repaired after the war, has long been cherished as
the gateway to the capital of Japan.

As part of the redevelopment of the Marunouchi area near the station in recent years,
there was initially a plan to dismantle the red-brick station building and construct a high-rise.
However, because of the movement of people for preserving the red-brick structure gained momentum,
the plan was dropped. Instead, the Marunouchi facade of the station underwent renovation,
that lasted five and a half years. In October, 2012, it was restored to its original appearance
from 100 years ago.

Reference: Asia News Network, January 7, 2015

JE-East vs. JR-Tokai

JR-East Japan Railway Company and JR-Tokai Japan Railway Company take a different approach
to smokers. JR-East provides a closed smoking booth on the platform. However, JR-Tokai allows
passengers to smoke on the open-air designated areas, which locates in the center of the
platform of Tokyo Station. This would represent the railway company's philosophy that JR-East
first thinks about the safety of passengers, in comparison to the JR-Tokai considers a smoker
is the main important people in the society, and we have to pay devoirs to smokers.


Air-flow dependent closed smoking booth at the JR-East side platform of Tokyo Station.
It located far from the center of Platform.

A guide plate of enclosed smoking room

(L) Fully-packed smoking booth with smokers was observed at Tokyo terminal platform.
Two more passengers are waiting in line for space inside, photographed in March 2012.
(R) JR-Tokai's no-smoking waiting room at the platform of Tokyo Station

The JR-Tokai provides an open-space smoking site at the center part on the platform of Tokyo Station.
An open-air smoking area was closed, and a new smoking room will be opened at the Shinkansen platform in 2013.
　
A new enclosed smoking room on the Shinkansen platform of Tokyo Termanal of JR Tokai

(L) A plateform information of Tokyo Station (R) Many commuter trains come and go at Tokyo Station

Tokyo railway terminal station


Smoking ban in a Japanese railway system


An underground smoking room on the basement of Tokyo Railway Terminal:
The room is very large. It may accommodate nearly 100 smokers.


Smoking ban in the railway trains of the world
A few Japanese railway companies think the smoking car and/or smoking booth
in a train are the superb service to train passengers. Do you agree to that?
JR Shinkansen Tokyo Station
A smoking-restriction policy is different between two JR railway companies.
JR's N700 superexpress train provides a smoking room.
Kyushu Shinkansen provides a smoking room.
JR-East
JR-Tokai
All Shinkansen train stations between Tokyo and Osaka will have an enclosed smoking room.


Narita Airport-City Rail Service
No more 'smoking seat' ticket was sold at the Keisei Narita Airport Stationafter July 2010.

All non-smoking Tokyo-Aomori bullet train 'Hayabusa' debuted in March 2011.
Maximum speed is 320 kms/H, the same level of France's TGV, the world fastest train.
320KM/H

All non-smoking Tokyo-Akita bullet train 'Super-Komachi' debuted in March 2013.

Shinjuku Highway Bus Terminal

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Travel by Train
All railway trains should be completely smoke -free.

　Italia Rail: Trenitalia
　Rail Travel Ireland
　NZ Rail: Tranz Alpine/Scenic
　Brief Journey by Australian Rail
　Amtrak Acela Express: Boston-Newyork
　Chicago CTA Rail
　Miami Metro Rail

　Stockholm Arlanda Airport and Express
　Stockholm County Railways
　X2000:Stockholm-Copenhagen Express
　Greater Copenhagen Railways
　Paris Rail Terminals
　Paris Metro-RER-Tram
　Bangkok Mass Transit/Thai Railways
　Taiwan High-Speed Rail
　Railways in Helsinki, Finland
　Indian Railways and Dehli Metro

　Portugal Metro, Railways
　Amsterdam Rail
　High-speed train in Spain 2010
　Barcelona Railways
　Washington DC Metro/Union Station

　Railway Travel in France 2011
　Railway Travel in Germany 2011
　Vancouver Skytrain
　Edomonton Metro
　VIA train, Vancouver to Jasper
　Alaskan Railroad

　Korea Train Express, Airport Express and Metro
　Amtrak: Seattle to Glacier National Park
　Airport Express and MTR, Hong Kong
　San Francisco: cablecar, tram and Bart
　High-speed train in Germany, Austria and Switzerland 2013

　Moscow Metro
　Saint Petersburg Metro
　Sapsan, high-speed train of Russia
　Allegro, high-speed train between Finland and Russia

　Alaskan Railroad
　Railways connecting Canberra and Sydney, Australia
　Gold Coast Light-Rail
　Train in Norway, Trondheim to Oslo

　Narita Airport-City Rail Service
　Japanese high-speed train 'Hayabusa'
　Japanese high-speed train 'Super-Komachi'
Total smoking ban in the railway trains is the common sense of the world.

日本語


東京駅
「禁煙席ネット」主宰　日本タバコフリー学会顧問　医学博士 宮本順伯
★This Web site is link-free.
This article was written and photography was taken in February 2008, and last revised in March 2013,
by Junhaku Miyamoto, M.D., PhD.
Information about Tokyo Station to celebrate 100th anniversary was added in January 2015.