East Japan Railway Company

JR East listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on 26 October 1993, and on 29 September 1997 moved its head office from the former JNR headquarters building in Marunouchi to Yoyogi in Shibuya, next to Shinjuku Station. In June 2001 a revision of the JR Companies Act removed the three Honshu JR companies from its scope, and on 21 June 2002 the 500,000 shares still held by the Japan Railway Construction Public Corporation were all sold, completing full privatization - the earliest among the four JR companies that have achieved it. The company is a constituent of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX Large70 indices and formerly had secondary listings in Nagoya and Osaka.

JR East operates all Shinkansen lines north of Tokyo except the Hokkaido Shinkansen: the Tohoku, Joetsu, Hokuriku (jointly with JR West), Yamagata and Akita Shinkansen. The Tohoku Shinkansen was extended from Ueno into Tokyo Station on 20 June 1991; the Yamagata Shinkansen opened on 1 July 1992, followed by the Akita Shinkansen on 22 March 1997. The Takasaki-Nagano section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen (the Nagano Shinkansen) opened on 1 October 1997, with the parallel Yokokawa-Karuizawa section of the Shinetsu Main Line abolished and Karuizawa-Shinonoi transferred to Shinano Railway. The Tohoku Shinkansen reached Hachinohe on 1 December 2002 and Shin-Aomori on 4 December 2010, the parallel Tohoku Main Line sections passing to IGR Iwate Galaxy Railway and Aoimori Railway. On 14 March 2015 the Hokuriku Shinkansen reached Kanazawa, with JR East as operator of the Nagano-Joetsumyoko section, and the Ueno-Tokyo Line opened the same day; from March 2016 trains began through-running onto the newly opened Hokkaido Shinkansen.

JR East diversified early into what it calls life-style service businesses - station retail, shopping centres, offices, hotels and housing - and into the Suica business. The Suica contactless IC fare card, launched on 18 November 2001, became interoperable with JR West's ICOCA in 2004 (the first tie-up between IC cards of different operators), with PASMO in 2007 and with IC cards nationwide in 2013; more than 80 million Suica cards have been issued and Mobile Suica has passed 20 million users. It bought Tokyo Monorail in 2002 (its ownership stake is 70 percent), acquired Tokyu Car Corporation's rolling-stock business in 2012 to create J-TREC, and in May 2024 launched the JRE BANK financial service with Rakuten Bank. In December 2017 West Midlands Trains, in which JR East held a 15 percent shareholding alongside Abellio and Mitsui, began operating the West Midlands franchise in England; JR East sold its stake to Abellio in September 2021.

Disasters have repeatedly tested the network. The Niigata Chuetsu earthquake of 23 October 2004 derailed a Joetsu Shinkansen train, and the Uetsu Main Line derailment (the Inaho No. 14 accident) followed on 25 December 2005. On 11 March 2011 the Great East Japan Earthquake inflicted severe damage centred on the Tohoku region and produced the company's largest-ever fall in revenue; the Tohoku Shinkansen resumed over its full length on 29 April, the damaged Kesennuma and Ofunato line sections were restored from 2012-2013 as bus rapid transit (the railway there was formally abolished in 2020), and the last closed section, on the Joban Line, reopened in March 2020. In October 2019 Typhoon No. 19 flooded the Nagano Shinkansen depot, submerging ten trainsets (two owned by JR West), and on 16 March 2022 the Fukushima-oki earthquake derailed a Tohoku Shinkansen train. In September 2020 the company forecast its first consolidated net loss since privatization as the COVID-19 pandemic cut ridership.

As of 1 March 2025 the network totalled 7,302.2 operating kilometres excluding BRT sections, the longest in the JR Group, making JR East Japan's largest railway operator; by passenger numbers multiplied by distance it is the largest railway company in the world, with transport revenues comparable to Deutsche Bahn. Average daily ridership was about 16.08 million passengers in fiscal 2024, and on its Shinkansen lines the company operates the Hakobyun priority cargo service, including a converted E3 series trainset dedicated to cargo. On 14 March 2026 it implemented its first fare revision since founding, aside from consumption-tax changes.

• 19871 April: Japanese National Railways was divided and privatized; East Japan Railway Company was founded, inheriting JNR's railway operations managed by the Nagano and Niigata railway operating divisions and those of the Tohoku and Kanto regions.
• 199120 June: the Tohoku Shinkansen was extended from Ueno into Tokyo Station.
• 19921 July: the Yamagata Shinkansen opened.
• 199326 October: JR East was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
• 199722 March: the Akita Shinkansen opened. 29 September: the head office moved from Marunouchi to Yoyogi, Shibuya. 1 October: the Takasaki-Nagano section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen (Nagano Shinkansen) opened.
• 200118 November: the Suica contactless IC fare card entered service.
• 200221 June: the 500,000 shares held by the Japan Railway Construction Public Corporation were all sold and JR East achieved complete privatization. 1 December: the Tohoku Shinkansen was extended from Morioka to Hachinohe.
• 200423 October: the Niigata Chuetsu earthquake severely damaged railway facilities and derailed a Joetsu Shinkansen train.
• 20104 December: the Tohoku Shinkansen was extended from Hachinohe to Shin-Aomori.
• 201111 March: the Great East Japan Earthquake inflicted severe damage centred on lines in the Tohoku region, producing the company's largest-ever fall in revenue; the Tohoku Shinkansen resumed service over its full length on 29 April.
• 201514 March: the Hokuriku Shinkansen was extended from Nagano to Kanazawa, with JR East operating the Nagano-Joetsumyoko section; the Ueno-Tokyo Line opened the same day.
• 202016 September: JR East announced that it expected its first consolidated net loss since privatization for the year ending March 2021, mainly because of the fall in rail travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 202614 March: JR East implemented its first fare revision since its founding other than those accompanying consumption-tax changes.