JTB Timetable Marks 100th Anniversary Next Year with 60,000 Copies Still in Circulation

The timetable data is all manually entered by the editorial team! The printed timetable is still going strong.

The ‘JTB Timetable’ will celebrate its 100th anniversary in March 2025.

The ‘JTB Timetable’ was first published in 1925 as the ‘Train Timetable’ compiled by the Ministry of Railways’ Transport Bureau. With its long history, the magazine continues to make its mark by issuing around 60,000 copies of the March edition each year, which coincides with the JR timetable revision.

Although it’s been a long time since checking train schedules online became the norm, the printed timetable still has many users. What is the appeal and role of the printed version? We spoke to Mirei Kajiwara, the current editor-in-chief, about the present state of the timetable.

“Nowadays, the printed timetable has become more of a hobby for many, but at the same time, for example, during the ‘Go To Travel’ campaign amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for travel increased, sales of the timetable also increased proportionally.

I feel that people still prefer to use it when they travel,” says Kajiwara.

Since its first issue in 1925, the magazine has never missed a publication. Even during wartime, when express and limited express trains were drastically reduced and paper was in short supply, it was published as a single page. It has never been suspended, and having recently overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is now approaching its 100th anniversary.

“Our editorial team finds that checking connections to a destination is quicker with the printed timetable than with an app.”

While there are, of course, dedicated fans, the printed timetable also has unique advantages, says editor-in-chief Kajiwara.

“The biggest strength is that train schedules are laid out in a single view on the page.

Our editorial team actually finds it faster to check connections to a destination with the printed timetable than with an app. Our hands instinctively know which page to turn to! (laughs)

Of course, it’s great that you can instantly find schedules with a single search online for ‘from here to there.’ However, if you want to check the next or previous train time, it requires an extra step.

With the printed timetable, the times before and after are listed side by side, so you can see them all at once. I think most of our target readers, those who say ‘I still prefer paper,’ really value this feature.

Even when it comes to connections, the printed timetable makes it easy to see where transfers can be made, and arranging the schedules to match those connections is where the editorial skill comes in. We’re always mindful of how smoothly we can help our customers transfer between trains.”

For those who can make full use of the printed timetable, it is more convenient than internet searches and makes it easier to plan a trip.

Additionally, in cases where schedules are suddenly disrupted by natural disasters like typhoons, the printed timetable makes it easier to find alternate routes. Kajiwara even says, “In those situations, having a timetable at hand helps me stay calm,” emphasizing that printed timetables still hold many advantages in terms of convenience.

“It’s not matching the fare…”—this kind of inquiry from corporate accounting departments was an everyday occurrence.

While becoming proficient in using the timetable might seem natural once you’re part of the editorial team, it was challenging for new hires or those newly assigned to the department.

Though less common today, many new employees were trained in the pre-internet era through handling inquiries from users.

“For a while after I joined the company, we often received inquiries from corporate accounting staff saying, ‘The railway fare submitted by an employee seems to differ from the fare calculated using the timetable. Which one is correct?’

Especially around April, we would get many inquiries from staff who had just started working in accounting. In those cases, we would teach them from the ground up how to read fare charts and calculate fares, since they hadn’t learned that at their company (laughs).

At the same time, newly assigned staff in the timetable editorial team would also get trained through these kinds of inquiries and questions from railway fans, learning how to read timetables and calculate fares along the way.” 

The busiest time for these elite timetable editors is the time of the JR timetable revision. The editorial staff, who have been trained to be timetable experts, face their busiest period every March during the JR timetable revision.

With the schedules for all the nation’s local trains and Shinkansen lines being revised, the sheer amount of information to handle is clearly overwhelming, even for a layperson to imagine. For the editorial team, the work leading up to this March revision is the busiest time of the year.

“We start preparing for the March revision around December, but since it’s a monthly publication, we’re working on the regular issues while also preparing the March issue that reflects the revisions.

There are trains and buses, and since many buses change their schedules on April 1st, we have to incorporate those changes too. Plus, there are planes as well, and all sorts of data from different companies flood in. Honestly, I don’t even want to imagine it right now, it’s just laughable (laughs).”

On top of that, the timetable data is provided in PDF or paper format, and all the numbers are manually input by the editorial team. For the March revision issue, an enormous amount of data must be entered, and the data is checked repeatedly to ensure there are no errors. Moreover, it’s not uncommon for the schedules to change after the initial data has been provided.

Of course, many other tasks are also involved, but just this one aspect alone gives you an idea of the tremendous effort that goes into producing the revision issue.

There has never been a month without a timetable revision.

The annual March timetable revision, which takes three to four months to complete, raises the question of whether it would be possible to publish quarterly instead of monthly by aligning the publication schedule with the revision dates of JR and other companies.

However, there are certain circumstances that necessitate keeping it as a monthly publication.

“While JR’s revision is in March, other companies revise their schedules on dates like August 1 or September 1, so revisions occur somewhere every month. Additionally, during peak seasons such as Obon, New Year, and fireworks festivals, there are also temporary train services. To accommodate these changes, we need to publish at least monthly.

We handle data from about 900 companies in railways, buses, and aviation, along with data from around 100 companies that provide ekiben (station bento). So, there has never been a month without a revision.”

To accommodate revisions and temporary services from about 1,000 companies each month, it is essential to maintain a monthly publication schedule at the very least. This monumental yet diligent accumulation of work is likely a significant reason behind the trust gained from readers and users.

In addition to this sense of reliability, the monthly feature articles also represent another facet of the publication.

“In the past, we used to focus on campaigns by the national railways, but since the privatization of the national railways, which led to the division of timetables into ‘JR Timetable’ (published by Kotsu Shimbunsha) and ‘JTB Timetable,’ we have expanded our cover stories to include not just railways, but also buses and airplanes. We have also started to feature a wide range of topics that reflect seasonal travel themes. 

For example, the August issue focused on fireworks, and the September issue featured station bento.”

In the latest September 2024 issue, a reader survey was conducted that featured popular station bento from across the country as the lead story. The results turned out to be quite intriguing.

“What we found from the survey this time was that popular station bento such as ‘Tōge no Kamameshi’ and ‘Gyūniku Doman Naka’ truly represent the classics. 

Since ‘Tōge no Kamameshi’ ranked first, we decided to include a historical photo from the time when trains were running between Yokokawa and Karuizawa, rather than showcasing current train operations. This choice reflects the connection to when ‘Tōge no Kamameshi’ could be enjoyed while waiting for the cable car connection at Yokokawa Station on the Shin’etsu Main Line.”

Despite expectations that many votes would come from railway enthusiasts with niche preferences, it turned out that the classic station bento were the most popular. Such results were unexpected for the editorial team, highlighting the interesting aspect of listening to the fans’ voices.

There is a “certain episode” that has been passed down among the past editors of the JTB Timetable.

In the JTB Timetable, there are popular sections like “Time Time Table,” which introduces reader submissions, and “Good Time,” where readers’ comments are published in the margins. The “Good Time” section was revived at the request of Kajihara.

“At one point, ‘Good Time’ was included in the reader submission pages, but since I’ve always liked that corner since being assigned to the editorial department, it was revived in the margins of the timetable.

Interestingly, we receive far more submissions via postcards than through SNS or online postings.”

While the “Good Time” section was revived with the editor-in-chief’s passion, there’s a story that has been passed down among past editors regarding this corner.

“There was a case where two people who posted in ‘Good Time’ ended up getting married.

It was during the heyday of pen pal correspondence, and those individuals were writing to each other. The topic of the JTB Timetable came up, and they discovered, ‘Actually, I post quite a bit,’ to which the other responded, ‘Oh, me too! What’s your pen name?!’ This led to an enthusiastic conversation. They eventually met and got married. We even received their wedding announcement in the editorial department!”

Over its 100-year history, the JTB Timetable has not only covered the operational schedules of railways across the country but has also connected people through their shared interests.

Amid countless timetable revisions, temporary services, and changes in stations that require continuous response, Kajiwara expressed, “Given the limited space, it feels really great when information fits well on the page and clicks perfectly. Above all, I want to continue publishing just as we have.” Under his leadership, the JTB Timetable will keep guiding many people’s travels and connecting individuals with places and one another.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the JTB Timetable, a campaign titled “JTB Timetable 100th Anniversary Campaign – The Journey Continues, Wherever It Leads” will be launched in March 2025. Information will be gradually updated on a special website set to open in October 2024.

Click here for the official JTB timetable website.