Japanese National Railways

And cars, it seemed, might spell the end of passenger rail in Japan in the 1980s.

Established in 1949, Japanese National Railways, a state-run enterprise, owned eighty percent of Japanese rail after World War II and was eager to expand in the post-war period.

It did so to the world's marvel with the launch of the Shinkansen in 1964.

And yet, while a massively successful addition to the network, 1964 marked another first, the first year the nationalized rail posted a loss.