All 9,300 Japanese train station, animated by the year it opened (1872–2026)
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Interactive map animates all 9,321 Japanese railway stations by opening year from 1872 to 2026.
An animated visualization tracks Japan's railway expansion across 154 years, starting with a single 29 km line between Shimbashi and Yokohama in 1872. The map shows 9,321 stations lit by their opening dates. A construction boom between 1900 and 1930 saw 272 stations open in the busiest year (1929), establishing the skeleton of modern Japan's rail network around Tokyo and Osaka. The visualization lets users filter stations by kanji characters, revealing how the rail map follows geography (rivers, mountains, rice paddies). Data comes from Wikidata; 96 stations were excluded due to missing dates or coordinates.
What commenters are saying
The site crashed on multiple browsers (iPhone, Firefox iOS, Safari) due to misuse of the history.replaceState() API called over 100 times per 10 seconds. Users suggested improvements: showing station closures as negative bars (Japan lost 1,366 km of track since the 1990s), adding zoom functionality, and displaying individual station details. Commenters noted the page appears to be Claude-generated based on visual design choices (beige background, fonts, color palette) and suggested design systems or concrete style references help avoid that aesthetic. A user mentioned a similar UK rail map project with zoomable detail showing track layouts and 3,500+ stations.