20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Iconic Shikoku ‘Anpanman' Trains Mark 25th Anniversary
Shikoku Railway Co. (JR Shikoku) is marking the 25th anniversary of the launch of its Anpanman trains, which feature characters from the popular anime, picture book and manga series 'Anpanman.'
In the Shikoku region, the main mode of transportation is cars, but the company has operated the special train service for a quarter century in the hope that children will experience the joy of traveling by trains.
The trains have carried a total of about 1.15 million passengers so far and have come to represent the Shikoku region.
A JR Shikoku official said, 'We express our gratitude to people who love [the Anpanman trains] and we want to continue operating them.'
Free rides for children
The idea for the Anpanman trains was devised partly because Takashi Yanase, the creator of Anpanman, was from Kochi.
In October 2000, the first Anpanman train began service as one of the Nampu limited express trains between Kochi and Okayama.
According to the company, the train, which was entirely wrapped with pictures of the characters and was operated without a set ending date, was unusual in those days.
In 2001, the routes of the Anpanman train service were expanded to sections between Okayama and Matsuyama, and Takamatsu and Matsuyama.
New models of Anpanman train cars debuted one after another. They include the YuYu Anpanman Car with play spaces for children, which debuted in 2002; those with reserved seats, called Anpanman Seats, on which pictures of the characters are printed, which debuted in 2005; and the Seto-Ohashi Anpanman Torokko, which has no glass in its windows and debuted in 2006.
In 2012, Anpanman trains ran in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures following the devastation of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Children in the damaged areas were invited to ride the trains free of charge.
In 2023, the total number of passengers on the Anpanman trains reached 1 million. As of the end of March this year, the total number had risen to about 1.147 million.
In recent years, a sizable number of people from Taiwan and other places overseas, where the anime series can be viewed online, have come to the region to ride the trains.
Long-term plan
In 2000, when the first Anpanman train began service, cars dominated transport in the Shikoku region, partly because of the opening of all sections of the expressways that connect the four prefectural capital cities in the Shikoku region in an X-shaped route.
Toshiyuki Umehara, 86, who was then president of JR Shikoku, said that what prompted the start of the Anpanman train service was an opinion poll the company conducted, mainly surveying people on shopping streets in Kochi Prefecture.
Regarding how people traveled to Osaka, most of the respondents replied that they used planes. About limited express trains, they replied that 'fares are higher than for planes' and 'the number of trains is too small.'
Umehara said: 'Actually, the fares were not so high and the number of trains was large. They had the wrong impression because they had not ridden on our trains.'
As he thought, he realized that he wanted people to experience train travel during their childhood and adopted an idea presented by a young employee. Umehara decided to begin limited express Anpanman train services.
Umehara recalled his thoughts at the time, saying: 'Children who have ridden in Anpanman trains will surely use trains when they become adults. It was a plan on which more than 20 years would be spent.'
Kiyohiro Matsuda, 78, who was then chief of JR Shikoku's train business department and later became president of the company, made the utmost effort to realize the plan. Other company officials voiced doubts such as, 'Babies and infants ride free of charge, so can it really result in a revenue increase?'
Despite such worries, Umehara and Matsuda made the decision to introduce the Anpanman trains. The result, Matsuda said, was 'a joyful miscalculation.'
Little children rode the trains with their parents, grandparents and other adults, but the number of adults was larger than they had predicted.
When services along parts of the company's Dosan Line were suspended for about three months in 1998 due to damage from a torrential rain disaster, Anpanman trains played a role in revitalizing the affected communities after the line was restored.
Future generations
Twenty-five years since the trains debuted, people who grew up with them now shoulder the business operations of JR Shikoku.
Sota Miyoshi, 26, who works in the company's office for the promotion of Anpanman train businesses, has worked as a conductor on Anpanman trains since joining the company in 2021.
'The image of children waving their hands for a long time even after disembarking is imprinted on my mind,' he said.
These memories of children overlap with his own as he also waved at Anpanman trains running along the rail tracks in Shikokuchuo, Ehime Prefecture, where he lived as a small child.
This fiscal year, JR Shikoku is operating a train with a reproduction of the exterior of the very first Anpanman train. The train will run until Jan. 12 next year between Kochi Station and Tosa Kuroshio Tetsudo Co.'s Nakamura or Sukumo stations.
A JR Shikoku official said: 'This is a milestone year when we express our gratitude to the many people who have loved [Anpanman trains]. We want to offer a wide range of related services.'
