Central Japan Railway, known as JR Tokai, reported consolidated operating revenue of ¥492.7bn for the quarter to June 2026, up 3.0% from a year earlier, even as operating profit slipped 0.9% to ¥219.1bn on higher wage and maintenance costs. Passenger volume on the Tokyo side of the Tokaido Shinkansen rose 1% year on year, a net of a 2-point lift from the comparison against last year's Osaka Expo travel surge, a 4-point pullback in domestic demand, and a 3-point gain from inbound travel, enough to top last year's Expo-boosted total.
Inbound demand is doing the heavy lifting on revenue. JR Tokai estimates its Shinkansen-linked inbound revenue reached roughly ¥49.0bn for the quarter, up 7% from a year earlier, even though total visitor arrivals to Japan for January through June were down 2.0% overall. Travelers from Europe, the Americas and Australia make up about 80% of the railway's inbound ridership by its own onboard survey, and those markets kept growing: US visitors were up 7.1%, Mexican visitors up 29.2%, and French and German visitors up 8.4% and 7.5% respectively. Standalone transport revenue, covering the Tokaido Shinkansen and JR Tokai's conventional lines together, rose to ¥387.8bn from ¥383.1bn, with the bullet train contributing ¥4.2bn of that gain and conventional lines adding ¥0.3bn.
To capture demand at a higher price point, JR Tokai introduced a schedule change in March 2026 letting it run up to 13 Nozomi departures an hour in some time slots. It plans to add a fully enclosed Supreme Class Cabin, a private-compartment option in car 7 of the Tokaido Shinkansen, from October 2026. A semi-private Supreme Class Seat and improved Green Car service are due sometime in the fiscal year starting April 2027.
On its long-delayed Chuo Shinkansen maglev line, JR Tokai signed a nature conservation agreement with Shizuoka Prefecture on July 18, a legal step the company says is required before main construction can begin in the Shizuoka section of the South Alps Tunnel. The agreement followed a May 31 meeting with mayors from the eight cities and two towns along the Oi River basin, and 22 briefing sessions held across those municipalities and Shizuoka City in May and June. JR Tokai's president met Shizuoka Governor Suzuki on July 1 to report on the outreach. The agreement clears one procedural requirement; it is not approval to begin tunnelling itself, and no construction start date has been disclosed.