Sleeper Trains & the Blue Trains

The Blue Train era is usually dated to 1 October 1958, when the overnight limited express Asakaze between Tōkyō and Hakata was re-equipped with brand-new 20-series carriages. The 20-series was a landmark in Japanese rolling stock: the first passenger coaches built as a permanently coupled fixed formation, the first with air-conditioning throughout the train, and finished in the blue-and-cream scheme (formally "Blue No. 15" with "Cream No. 1") that gave the whole genre its name. The Asakaze proved that a comfortable, hotel-like overnight train could be a flagship service, and JNR rolled the concept out across the country.

Through the 1960s the network of named overnight expresses widened, and a second generation of sleeping cars followed — the 14-series and 24-series of the early 1970s, the latter's 24 series 25 type arriving in 1974 with wider berths than the cramped early stock. The golden age peaked late in the decade. A full-blown "Blue Train boom" took hold in the media around 1978, when the trains filled novels, magazines and television; that March the broadcaster TBS aired a documentary chasing the Fuji. Schoolchildren collected photographs of named services such as the Fuji, Hayabusa, Sakura, Mizuho and Izumo, and the illuminated headboards on the rear of each train became collectors' icons.

The decline, when it came, was structural rather than sudden. The Sanyō Shinkansen reached Hakata in 1975, and a steep rise in JNR fares and charges followed in 1976; together they began drawing passengers off the long western sleeper runs. Over the following decades the high-speed network, regional airports, expressway night buses and falling air fares all offered faster or cheaper ways to make the same journey. The economics of overnight operation worked against the sleepers too — keeping crews and station staff on duty through the night was costly, and services that crossed between several railway companies after the 1987 privatisation of JNR carried heavy coordination overheads. Ageing 14- and 24-series carriages, expensive to replace, sealed the case.

The numbers tell the story plainly. JR East calculated that by 2005 ridership on the Blue Train routes running west from Tōkyō had fallen to around a fifth — about 21 percent — of the 1987 figure. The withdrawals then came in waves. The Sakura and the original Asakaze were discontinued on 1 March 2005; the Izumo followed on 17 March 2006; and the Naha, Akatsuki and Ginga were withdrawn on 15 March 2008. The two most famous Kyūshū runs, the Hayabusa and the Fuji, made their final departures on 14 March 2009. The Hokuriku ended on 13 March 2010, the Nihonkai was cut back to seasonal operation in 2012, and the Akebono was likewise reduced to a seasonal train on 15 March 2014.

The last of the great long-distance sleepers were the trains to and from Hokkaidō and along the Sea of Japan. JR West's luxurious Twilight Express, running since 1989, made its final scheduled run on 12 March 2015. The Hokutosei, the celebrated overnight service between Ueno and Sapporo, ended regular operation on 13 March 2015 and ran for the last time as a seasonal train on 22 August 2015 — a date often taken to mark the close of the roughly six-decade Blue Train story. The Cassiopeia, a deluxe twin-deck sleeper on the same Hokkaidō route, ended its regular service in March 2016.

A single conventional sleeper survived the cull. The 285-series electric multiple units, introduced on 10 July 1998 and owned jointly by JR Central and JR West, work the combined Sunrise Izumo and Sunrise Seto — overnight limited expresses that run coupled out of Tōkyō and split en route for Izumoshi and Takamatsu. Honoured with the Blue Ribbon Award in 1999, they remain the only overnight trains still in regular timetabled operation in Japan, a lone survivor of a once-dense web.

Yet the sleeper has been reborn at the opposite end of the market, as the ultra-luxury "cruise train." Rather than simply carrying passengers from A to B, these run multi-day circular excursions and rank among the most exclusive trains in the world. JR Kyūshū led the way with Seven Stars in Kyūshū, a deluxe sleeping-car excursion train that entered revenue service on 15 October 2013. JR East followed with the ten-car Train Suite Shiki-shima (E001 series), running since 1 May 2017, while JR West introduced the Twilight Express Mizukaze (87 series) on 17 June 2017 — its name and emblem deliberately echoing the old Twilight Express that had ended in 2015. The blue overnight expresses are gone, but the idea of sleeping aboard a Japanese train, in far rarer and grander form, lives on.

• 1958The Blue Train era begins: the overnight limited express Asakaze (Tōkyō–Hakata) is re-equipped with new blue 20-series sleeping cars (1 October).
• 1974The 24 series 25 type sleeping car appears, offering wider berths than the earlier coaches.
• 1975The Sanyō Shinkansen reaches Hakata, beginning to draw passengers off the western sleeper runs.
• 1978The "Blue Train boom" peaks in the media; that March TBS airs a documentary following the Fuji.
• 1989JR West launches the luxurious Twilight Express sleeper.
• 1998The 285-series sleeper EMUs enter service (10 July), jointly owned by JR Central and JR West.
• 2005The Sakura and the original Asakaze are discontinued (1 March); by now west-bound Blue Train ridership is about 21% of its 1987 level.
• 2006The Izumo sleeper is discontinued (17 March).
• 2008The Naha, Akatsuki and Ginga sleepers are withdrawn (15 March).
• 2009The Hayabusa and Fuji, the famous Kyūshū sleepers, make their final runs (14 March).
• 2010The Hokuriku sleeper is discontinued (13 March).
• 2013JR Kyūshū's Seven Stars in Kyūshū, a deluxe cruise sleeper, enters revenue service (15 October).
• 2014The Akebono is reduced to a seasonal train (15 March).
• 2015Two icons end: the Twilight Express (12 March) and the Hokutosei's regular service (13 March); the Hokutosei's last seasonal run is 22 August, marking the close of the Blue Train era.
• 2016The Cassiopeia ends its regular service (March), leaving the Sunrise Izumo / Sunrise Seto as the only regular overnight train.
• 2017Two more luxury cruise trains debut: JR East's Train Suite Shiki-shima (E001 series, 1 May) and JR West's Twilight Express Mizukaze (87 series, 17 June).