Japan’s magic bullet: 60 years of the train that helped rebuild the idea of a country

A modern bullet train passes Mount Fuji. The shinkansen network has carried 6.4 billion people. Photograph: Manabu Takahashi/Getty Images

At 6am on 1 October 1964, two trains set off in opposite directions in a ­daring ­experiment that would quickly turn them into ­symbols of Japan’s ­transformation from ­militarist pariah to global ­economic powerhouse.

Black-and-white footage shows smartly dressed men, women and children marvelling at the countryside whizzing past their windows, some perhaps trying to calm their nerves at being whisked along at speeds unheard of in rail travel.