Kultura kolejowa oraz kultura japońskich entuzjastów kolei. Od głównego nurtu do subkultury

Since its beginnings, railways in Japan have been strongly linked to Japanese culture. During the first hundred years of operation, it was a culture of progress, and railways were associated with civilization and modernity. At the same time, it was a kind of medium that transported people to a different, better world. Perceived in this way, railways became part of the mainstream, or even part of high culture. Since the 1970s, we have been witnessing a decline in the importance of railways in transport. They have given way to car and airplane travel. There has also been a change in the consciousness of the Japanese, who, with the end of the period of accelerated economic development after the war (dating from the 1950s and 1960s), abandoned the culture of modernization in favor of consumerism. This change, combined with the emergence of contemporary popular and mass culture, led to the transformation of the previously homogeneous group of railway enthusiasts into a subculture that stood in opposition to the mainstream of the new Japanese culture for nearly two decades. Young people saw railway culture as an escape from the rigid social norms imposed by the new post-war Japanese society. With the popularization of otaku culture, railways became one of the bastions (next to anime and manga) where enthusiasts could pursue their interests and create norms alternative to those of the mainstream society. Railway culture became a form of escape from the prevailing stereotype of masculinity in Japan for many young men. This marked a return to the railway as a medium that took people to a different, better world. Today, railways and the associated railway culture and railway enthusiast culture are one of many cultural trends in which many, if not most, Japanese people participate. It is present on television in the form of travel programs and series, in classic cinema (such as Shinkansen Daibakuhatsu, 2025), and animated films (e.g., Demon Slayer: The Movie: Mugen Train, 2020), as well as in literature (Bullet Train, 2010). All this makes trains and railway culture an important cultural medium connecting different generations of Japanese people.