JR is big, but 62% of passenger volume is not JR and that remaining 38% is split by 7 companies

Further, in the big metro areas, the private trains do just fine.

JR East is #1, Tokyo Metro is #2, JR West is #3, Tokyu is #4, ... the next JR, JR Central is down at #9 with #5 #6 #7 #8 all private. Tokyo Metro is private, Toei (is the city run subway, it has 4 lines as is far down the list).

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queenkjuul 2 days ago | parent [-]

At least where i live, subways and railways aren't really considered to be the same thing

	▲	bobthepanda 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Japan operates a kind of hybrid system where the subway (at least in Tokyo) mostly consists of tracks that connect to private operators on either end, and a train will just run through from the private parts of the track to the subway parts with no interruption whatsoever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_through_trains_in_Japa...
	▲	throwaway2037 2 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		In the United States, probably the best comparison would be BART in San Francisco Bay Area and WMATA in Washingon, D.C. area. They act like a subway in city center, and like a (commuter) railway outside. As a stretch, also look at SF Muni Metro which acts like a tramway/streetcar outside the dense areas, else like a "light subway" in the dense areas.
	▲	klausa 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The line gets really blurry in some places in Tokyo. Asakusa (one of "my" lines!) line, is definitely a subway inside central Tokyo, but you can stay on the same physical train going all the way from Narita to Haneda (think RER in Paris?) — I think it would be qualified as "light rail" anywhere else in the world.