Japan's Bullet Train Eye's Foreign Market

It is the archetypal image of how modern Japan has fused technical excellence with respect for tradition: a Shinkansen - or bullet - train speeds at 300kph (186mph) past Mount Fuji, whose snow-capped beauty has been celebrated over centuries in woodcut prints.

However, if JR Central, operator of the Tokaido high-speed line that passes Mount Fuji, succeeds in exporting the technology worldwide, Shinkansen trains may become just as much a symbol of California or Abu Dhabi as they are of Japan.

JR Central's efforts promise to sharpen already intense competition for the mainly European providers of trains and other equipment to the growing number of countries developing high-speed passenger rail systems.

Ironically, the export drive also comes as JR Central's focus at home turns to developing a different technology - based on maglev trains lifted by magnetic force above the track - for its home market.

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