Japan Railways (JR Group) is the successor of the national Japanese National Railways (JNR), which was privatized in 1987 due to huge debts and mismanagement.
The JR Group is made up of six regional passenger railway companies, which are JR Hokkaido, JR East, JR Central, JR West, JR Shikoku, and JR Kyushu, and one nationwide freight railway company, JR Freight. Together they operate a nationwide network of urban, regional and interregional train lines and the shinkansen (bullet trains).