A record dated July 17, 2020, examining how delays to the Chuo Shinkansen could damage Osaka and the wider Kansai economy, urban development around Shin-Osaka Station, and the region’s shrinking working-age population.
Republished with reference to the Shizuoka section dispute and the agreements reached between Shizuoka Prefecture and JR Central in July 2026.

July 17, 2020
“Any delay in the opening date will have a particularly serious impact on Osaka among the three great metropolitan regions of Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka that are to be connected by the Linear Chuo Shinkansen,” he warns.
The following is taken from an article published in the previous day’s Sankei Shimbun under the headline, “Kansai Business Community’s Calculations Disrupted――Linear Delay Deals Blow to Companies.”
I am convinced that, at the very least, Kansai should stop purchasing all products from Shizuoka Prefecture, and that the Japanese people should completely stop visiting Shizuoka Prefecture for tourism.
What Kawakatsu is doing is that contemptible.
Simply because Shizuoka Prefecture receives no benefit from the project, he opposed a national policy that Japan had spent many years advancing, harassed JR Central, and finally caused the national project schedule to be delayed.
The resulting losses will amount to trillions of yen.
The people of Shizuoka Prefecture who elected Kawakatsu must also be made to suffer equivalent losses so that they understand what has happened.
It appears that the people of Shizuoka possess only an elementary-school level of intelligence.
Until Shizuoka Prefecture suffers losses amounting to several trillion yen――a period that will probably extend far beyond ten years――its people would be better advised to receive the consequences of their own ugliness in this world rather than in hell.
The tactic of invoking the environment in order to conceal a base motive is no different from the conduct of China, a country of unfathomable evil and plausible falsehoods, or from that of the Korean Peninsula.
JR Central President Shin Kaneko’s announcement that the company would reset the opening date for the Shinagawa―Nagoya section of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen, which had been scheduled for 2027, has made it certain that the opening of the Nagoya―Osaka section, construction of which was expected to begin after the first section opened, will also be delayed.
Should the opening date be pushed back substantially, the plans of the Kansai business community to revitalize the region’s economy by strengthening exchanges with Tokyo and Nagoya will be disrupted, heightening concerns that Kansai’s relative economic decline will accelerate.
By Nobuo Kurokawa――See also the article on Page 1.
The shortest estimated journey time on the Linear Chuo Shinkansen is 40 minutes between Shinagawa and Nagoya and 67 minutes between Shinagawa and Osaka.
The full opening to Osaka was initially scheduled for 2045, eighteen years after the planned opening of the Shinagawa―Nagoya section.
However, following increasingly vigorous approaches to the national government led by the Kansai business community, the use of the government’s Fiscal Investment and Loan Program was approved, making it possible to bring the opening forward by as much as eight years.
The present delay to the Linear Chuo Shinkansen will throw cold water on the efforts that the Kansai business community has made up to this point.
Mitsuhiro Miyashita, a senior researcher at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting who is knowledgeable about the Linear Chuo Shinkansen project, warned:
“Any delay in the opening date will have a particularly serious impact on Osaka among the three great metropolitan regions of Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka that are to be connected by the Linear Chuo Shinkansen.”
According to Miyashita, among the three metropolitan regions, the Osaka metropolitan area――Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, and Hyogo――is experiencing the fastest rate of population decline.
Its working-age population――people between the ages of 15 and 64, who are expected to form the principal body of passengers using the Linear Chuo Shinkansen――is projected to decline from the current 11 million to 7.8 million by 2045.
“For that reason, the later the opening date becomes, the more the economic benefits of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen will diminish in Osaka,” he said.
A delay in the opening will also have a negative impact on urban development.
Miyashita pointed to redevelopment around JR Shin-Osaka Station, which is expected to become a Linear Chuo Shinkansen station, and to development north of JR Osaka Station.
“It will lead to stagnation in the inflow of business travellers and will deal a blow to the companies involved in those development projects,” he said.
The Council for the Early Realization of the Full Opening of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen, composed of the Kansai Economic Federation, Osaka Prefecture, Osaka City, and other bodies, had aimed to welcome the opening of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen without a lengthy interval after the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo and the proposed establishment in Osaka of an integrated resort――IR――including a casino.
Its intention was to “maximize” the benefits of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen.
The delay in opening casts doubt on that strategy as well.