How the Shinkansen Bullet Train Changed Japan Forever

How the Shinkansen Bullet Train Changed Japan Forever The Shinkansen. The word means "new trunk line," but to the rest of the world, it means something far more powerful. It means speed. It means precision. It means the future. And since October 1st, 1964, it has carried over ten billion passengers without a single fatality caused by a train accident. No other rail network on Earth of comparable size and speed can make that claim. Not one. But the bullet train almost never happened.