Qualla: The Shimizu Tunnels: Boring Through the Backbone of Japan

The Shimizu Tunnels: Boring Through the Backbone of Japan: Introduction

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nihongarden, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1922, Japanese engineers drove the first drill into the mountain range that separates the Pacific side of Honshu from the Sea of Japan coast. Nine years later, in 1931, they emerged on the other side with a 9,702-meter tunnel -- the longest in Japan at the time -- and shaved four hours off the journey between Tokyo and Niigata. That tunnel was only the beginning. The same mountain pass would be bored through twice more over the next five decades, each tunnel longer, faster, and more ambitious than the last, until the Daishimizu Tunnel opened in 1982 at 22.2 kilometers -- then the longest railway tunnel in the world. Three tunnels through one mountain, three eras of Japanese engineering, one obsession: connect the capital to the snow country.

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Image: Nihongarden | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Shimizu Tunnels: Boring Through the Backbone of Japan: Nine Years in the Dark

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nihongarden, CC BY-SA 3.0. The original Shimizu Tunnel was an act of brute determination. Construction began in 1922 on the Joetsu Line, JR East's rail corridor linking Tokyo to Niigata Prefecture. The engineers faced a mountain range that forms the geographic spine of central Honshu, separating the Pacifi...

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Image: Nihongarden | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Shimizu Tunnels: Boring Through the Backbone of Japan: The Parallel Twin

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Short Final, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the 1960s, traffic on the Joetsu Line had outgrown a single track. The solution was not to widen the original tunnel but to drill an entirely new one beside it. The Shin-Shimizu Tunnel was completed in 1967, running 13,500 meters mostly parallel to its older sibling. The pair ...

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Image: Short Final | CC BY-SA 4.0

The Shimizu Tunnels: Boring Through the Backbone of Japan: The Bullet Train Breaks Through

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nihongarden, CC BY-SA 3.0. The third and most ambitious tunnel arrived with the Shinkansen. The Daishimizu Tunnel was completed in 1978 for the Joetsu Shinkansen, the high-speed line connecting Tokyo to Niigata that opened in 1982. At 22.2 kilometers, it was the longest railway tunnel in the world when fin...

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Image: Nihongarden | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Shimizu Tunnels: Boring Through the Backbone of Japan: A Half-Century in Cross-Section

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nihongarden, CC BY-SA 3.0. Viewed together, the three Shimizu tunnels form a cross-section of modern Japanese engineering. The 1931 original, with its spiral approach tunnels and pioneering electrification, represents the ambition of prewar Japan to bind its provinces together by rail. The 1967 Shin-Shimiz...

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Image: Nihongarden | CC BY-SA 3.0