Total railways of 27,182 km include several track gauges, the most common of which is 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge, with 22,301 km of track of which 15,222 km is electrified.[6]
Fukuoka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya, Osaka, Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, and Yokohama have subway systems.
Most Japanese people traveled on foot until the later part of the 19th century. The first railway was built between Tokyo and Yokohama in 1872 and many more developed soon afterward. Japan, as we know it today, is home to one of the world's most developed transportation networks. Mass transportation is well developed in Japan, but the road system lags behind and is inadequate for the number of cars owned in Japan. This is often attributed to the fact that road construction is difficult in Japan because of its uniquely high population density, and the limited amount of available usable land for road construction. Shinkansen, or "bullet trains", as they are often known, are the high speed trains in Japan, which run on completely separate lines from their commuting train counterparts, with few exceptions. Shinkansen take up a large portion of the long distance travel in Japan, as about 250 Shinkansen trains operate daily, the fastest being the JR East E5 and E6 series trains, which operate at a maximum speed of 320 km/h (200 mph). Shinkansen trains are known to be very punctual, following suit with all other Japanese transportation; in 2003, the average delay per train on the Tokaido Shinkansen was a mere 6 seconds.[