Chōshi Electric Railway Line

Rail service in this corner of Chōshi began under a predecessor. The Chōshi Sightseeing Railway (銚子遊覧鉄道), set up by local backers, opened a steam-worked line between Chōshi and Inubō on 28 December 1913. The venture lost money from the outset, and when the First World War sent steel prices soaring the line was abandoned on 21 November 1917, in only its fourth year of operation; the rails were lifted and sold. The right-of-way lay disused until founders of the original company regrouped as the Chōshi Railway (銚子鉄道), which had been incorporated on 10 October 1922 and which reused the old trackbed to reopen the route — now extended to Tokawa — as Chōshi–Inubō–Tokawa on 5 July 1923.

The revived line was electrified at 600 V DC on 1 July 1925, and over the following years it added intermediate stations such as Kasagami-Kurohae, Kimigahama and Tōdai-mae. Like much of Japan's railway network the line suffered in the Second World War: air raids on 20 July 1945 destroyed its substation and depot and forced a suspension of services. The company borrowed a steam locomotive from the national railways to resume running that December, restored its substation in 1946, and brought electric trains back on 4 April that year. On 20 August 1948, under post-war corporate-reconstruction law, the present-day Chōshi Electric Railway (銚子電気鉄道) was established and the line's assets were transferred to it.

From the post-war decades the line was squeezed by the rise of buses and private cars, and its operating account fell into deficit, leaving the survival of the railway in doubt. Municipal deficit subsidies for the private railway began in 1969, and from fiscal 1975 national, prefectural and municipal subsidies for maintaining services were paid under the Local Railway and Tramway Maintenance Act. Freight operations were discontinued on 1 February 1984 amid national-railway freight cutbacks, and one-man driver-only operation began on 1 April 1995 — all measures against a steadily worsening financial position.

The line's defining survival story is its food business. From 19 September 1995 the company began selling "Chōden no nure-senbei" — its own moist soy-glazed rice crackers — at Inubō Station, and the snacks gradually grew into the larger part of its income. The cause became a national news story in November 2006, when the railway, unable even to pay for the legally required inspection of its rolling stock, posted a now-famous appeal on its website — "We have to earn the money to repair the trains" — asking the public to support it by buying nure-senbei. Mail orders poured in from across Japan. The snack trade has since outgrown the trains themselves: of the company's roughly ¥500 million in annual sales, non-railway business accounts for about 80 per cent.

The company has leaned into this model ever since, building a stable of side businesses around the line. In August 2018 it launched a deliberately self-deprecating corn-snack stick called "Mazuibō" (literally "bad-tasting stick"), which sold over four million units within four years and is offered in numerous flavours. These ventures have run alongside genuine financial scandal — a former executive was arrested in 2006 over the embezzlement of some ¥110 million, receiving a suspended prison sentence in 2007 — and against continuing public support: as of fiscal 2024 the city operated a "Chōshi Electric Railway support fund," through which about ¥29 million was drawn on to help maintain operations.

Tourism has been the other half of the strategy. From the 1990s the company pursued a sightseeing-oriented revival, renovating and repainting stations and introducing mascots, and it has marketed the line on the back of the scenic Inubōsaki cape, lighthouse and clifftop coastline at its eastern end. In December 2015 it began applying naming-rights nicknames to its stations, and on 1 April 2025 it adopted the whole-line nickname "Inubō Gakeppuchi Line" (犬吠崖っぷちライン) — a pun playing on the area's cliffs and on the railway's perpetually precarious finances.

Today the Chōshi Electric Railway Line carries local passengers and a steady stream of tourists along its short run from Chōshi out to Tokawa, kept going by a combination of public subsidy, sightseeing traffic and a celebrated snack business. It remains one of Japan's best-known examples of a tiny local railway that survives less on fares than on the goodwill — and the appetite — of the wider public.

• 191328 December: the Chōshi Sightseeing Railway, set up by local backers, opens a steam-worked Chōshi–Inubō line.
• 191721 November: deep in deficit and hit by wartime steel-price rises, the Chōshi Sightseeing Railway line is abandoned in only its fourth year; the rails are lifted and sold.
• 192210 October: founders of the original company regroup and incorporate the Chōshi Railway.
• 19235 July: the Chōshi Railway reopens the route over the old trackbed, now extended to Tokawa, as Chōshi–Inubō–Tokawa.
• 19251 July: the line is electrified at 600 V DC.
• 194520 July: air raids destroy the substation and depot, suspending services; a steam locomotive is borrowed from the national railways to resume running that December.
• 19464 April: with the substation restored, electric train services resume.
• 194820 August: under post-war corporate-reconstruction law, the present-day Chōshi Electric Railway is established and the line's assets are transferred to it.
• 1969Chōshi City begins paying a stand-alone deficit subsidy for the private railway; from fiscal 1975 national, prefectural and municipal maintenance subsidies follow under the Local Railway and Tramway Maintenance Act.
• 19841 February: freight operations are discontinued amid national-railway freight cutbacks.
• 19951 April: one-man driver-only operation begins. From 19 September the company starts selling its own 'nure-senbei' moist rice crackers at Inubō Station.
• 2006November: unable to fund the legally required inspection of its rolling stock, the railway posts a famous online appeal — 'We have to earn the money to repair the trains' — asking the public to buy nure-senbei; mail orders pour in nationwide.
• 20183 August: the company launches the self-deprecating corn-snack stick 'Mazuibō', which sells over four million units within four years.
• 20251 April: the line adopts the whole-line nickname 'Inubō Gakeppuchi Line', a pun on the area's clifftops and the railway's precarious finances.