Does the Japanese railway system have any flaws?

 The impressive, extensive and reliable Japanese railway systems does have many flaws. Some are infrastructure and some are financial.

There are two national track gauges. The standard 1435 mm gauge used for the dedicated JR shinkansen lines and some private railways including the Keikyu and Keisei operating around the Greater Tokyo area. The 1067 mm Cape gauge is used across the entire JR network away from shinkansen network, as well as on many private railways. Despite some trials, there is no rolling stock which uses either track gauge - and the two works remain entirely seperate. Some JR 1067 mm tracks have been re-gauged to 1435 mm gauge in northern Honshu as part of mini shinkansen project.

Japanese railways feature many level (at grade) crossings, where road and railway cross on the same level. By default, barriers left open for road traffic and then closed for passing trains. The famous Shinagawa No 1 Crossing on the Keikyu main line is frequent closed for road traffic, allowing unhindered passage of the busy passenger service.

Shinagawa level crossing in Tokyo - on the Keikyu main line. Source and credit NJ Trains and Airplanes

Back in 1987, the nationalised JNR was privatised - mainly to deal with the extraordinary debt problem. Nearly forty years later, and this is still not resolved. The privatised and restructuring separated the healthy railway businesses from the legacy liabilities, allowed the new companies to thrive. But left the government to deal with much of the old debt over several decades.

The strategically import JR Freight company usually breaks-even, occasionally making modest profits. The freight operator does not generating the huge returns seen on the passenger Shinkansen networks.

The JR passenger group has six operators. Two are still in state hands: JR Kyushu and JR Hokkaidō, while the other four have been privatised in recent decades. Each JR passenger company has expanded into other business interests. But there is no competition between them, with each having a regional monopoly. There are no open access operators - as in Europe. And unlike Europe, there is little dynamic pricing - with the same fare regardless of time of purchase or time of travel.

Yet, Japan is an excellent country to explore by train. I know. Across four visits, I’ve visited all four islands with railway networks.

A JR West rapid service at Kyoto station. Picture taken by Nicholas Stone, the author of this answer.

Why do Japanese coins have holes in the middle?

 It’s not just the Japanese, but the Chinese and Koreans (up until the 1950s), and Vieatnamiese also have holes!

Japanese 5 Yen

Chinese Yuans

The reason why they have holes in an ancient one. It’s becasue Ancient Chinese,, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese business men, merchants, and normal people didn’t have wallets. Instead they carried all their coinage on strings!

While wallets are now used in place of strings, the tradition of putting holes though coins today is strictly for appearances. It gives the coin a distinct look that connects with a country.

Can you name some Japanese things, ideas, or inventions that are not well-known outside of Japan?

 

1. 
   Machines like rice cookers and vacuum cleaners have power cables that retract inside the machine itself. Extremely convenient.
2. The Japanese are so honest that usually shops in traditional neighborhoods are unmanned. You have to ring a bell to call someone and pay.
3. When I first arrived in Japan, this was true everywhere. I remember once, I visited a 500 thousand people city in Yamagata and I never found a single home with a lock on the door.
4. Once my brother withdrew 600 dollars from an ATM, forgot them there, went back two hours later and the six 10000 yen bills were still there. This is normal.
5. Trains are so frequent that I never bother find out when the next one is.
6. Free taxies have a red light, busy ones green.
7. The language often does not distinguish blue and green, so for example youth is said to be the blue years, the name of the Tokyo neighborhood of Aoyama means blue mountains. Traffic lights are green but said to blue.
8. on the other hand, the color pencils set for school children includes a color that we do not have. It is called shu 朱, The typical color of Shinto shrines.

1. Saws cut not when you push,but when you pull. This simple difference has vast consequences. Since the blade is under tension, it can be thin without bending, unlike western tools. Hairline cuts are easy, little energy is required, cuts are more precise.
2. Japanese can be written from right to left, from left to right, from up down, but not from down up.
3. The direction you write depends on where you write. Newspaper articles are written vertically, from right to left. Signs on trucks often go from left to right.
4. With computers and smartphones you write from left to right.
5. In a Japanese house the entrance is a small room between two doors. Although physically inside, it is considered outside, not inside. Of the two doors, the one to the outside can be opened at will. The one towards the house is unlocked but inviolable. Nobody outside will open it. Because it is considered outside, the mail box used to be here.
6. Gardens are considered part of the house and must be visible from inside, so that you can enjoy them all the time. That is why you have doors that face the garden, never windows.
7. A Japanese garden may have no plants, like the famous zen garden at Ryōanji in Kyoto , but it will always have stones.
8. One of the reasons is the fact that the stones stand for mountains, and mountains are closely tied to ancestor worship.
9. Ancestors reside in a small altar most people have in their house. Every morning, my wife rings the bell to call her dead parents to their meal. She will leave crackers, sweets and/or some rice.
10. When possible, cemeteries are always built at a certain height above the community. That way, ancestors can keep an eye on their children and protect them. The same thing is true in Korea. These are the tombs of the royal family, facing Seul.

1. It was believed that, as time passes, they lose interest in this world and go up the mountain, until they jump in the sky and become stars. This is why stars influence our lives.