I was scheduled to visit Hachinohe City in Aomori Prefecture the other day for business trip, but due to a major disruption on the Tohoku Shinkansen—including the train I was supposed to board—all service was suspended for an extended period on that day, and I had no choice but to cancel my plans.
Lately, it feels as though incidents involving JR-operated trains are becoming more frequent. The Tohoku Shinkansen, operated by JR East, has also been experiencing a series of troubles, including train carriages becoming decoupled, among other issues.
Until now, I had fortunately never been directly affected by such incidents, but this time, I was hit hard. Regarding the Tohoku Shinkansen disruptions, it appears that the causes have not been thoroughly identified, and as a result, the countermeasures seem inadequate. Similar problems appear to be recurring.
In light of this, I created a set of prompts and had Google Gemini’s Deep Research function (a generative AI-based investigation tool) look into the matter from the following perspectives:
- Investigate incidents involving the Tohoku Shinkansen over the past two years, focusing on their causes, recovery times, and the number of affected passengers.
- Examine whether there are organizational issues within JR that may be contributing to the frequent disruptions, and report on those if any.
- Investigate and report whether the privatization and breakup of Japan National Railways (JNR) might be hindering effective information-sharing among JR companies.
In about three minutes, the system generated a surprisingly comprehensive research report, including recommendations for preventing future occurrences. If you are interested, please see the link below.