The government's go-ahead last week finally sets in motion the ¥9 trillion project to build an ultrahigh-speed magnetic levitation railway line linking Tokyo and Osaka, more than 40 years after the state's basic plan was adopted in 1973. Still, there does not appear to be any of the kind of excitement with which the nation greeted the debut of the shinkansen bullet train system 50 years ago. Questions continue to be raised about profitability of the project by Central Japan Railway Co., while concerns linger over environmental impact and technical challenges in the construction of the maglev line that — when completed three decades later — would eventually link Tokyo and Osaka in 67 minutes.

The approval given by the transport minister covers the first-phase section between Tokyo and Nagoya, and JR Tokai, as the railway operator is popularly known, will pay for all of the estimated construction cost of ¥5.523 trillion. The maglev line, based on the homegrown technology using superconducting electromagnets to float the train, is expected to shorten the time for the 286 km trip from its terminal in Tokyo's Shinagawa Station to Nagoya to 40 minutes when operation of the section begins in 2027. JR Tokai plans to extend the line to Osaka in 2045.

Research into the maglev technology by the then state-run Japanese National Railways began two years before the Tokaido Shinkansen line was opened in 1964. The system that has been tested in Yamanashi since the late 1990s is scheduled to drive the maglev train at a maximum speed of 505 kph in commercial operations.