EditingPolicy.html

WAKUDA YASUO (和久田康雄 1934.03.01-2017.04.13) was the first to systematically shed light on the history of all private railway operators, and his seven books（hereinafter referred to as "Wakuda Book"）, ranging from "Documents on Japan's Private Railways"（資料・日本の私鉄）by Railway Book Publishing Association（鉄道図書刊行会 1968）to "Private Railway History Research Materials for Railway Fans"（鉄道ファンのための私鉄史研究資料）by Electric Car Research Association（電気車研究会 2014）, have been updated with each new edition and have served as fundamental resources for private railway history research.

However, more than 10 years have passed since the final edition, "Private Railway History Research Materials for Railway Fans", and "type 3 railways" and "track maintenance operators" are not included (although they are listed as a note), so while there is no problem with past company names, it is becoming difficult to match current company names.

The two data sets being released this time were created in collaboration between MASUDA AKIHISA（益田彰久）and ISHINO TETSU（石野哲）, the author of this page.

The content of the "Wakuda Book" has been updated to 2025, and "type 3 railways" and "track maintenance operators" that were not included have been added. Any errors in the dates or content have been specifically noted.

These ＜Ａ＞ and ＜Ｂ＞ only contain information about the changes in company names (the only difference between the two is the order of the data), but they are addendum to the "Wakuda Book" and are the latest lists of "All Private Railway Company Names in Japan (1882-2025)" with start and end dates.

In the Preface to the publication of the "List of Private and National Railway Stations"（「私鉄国鉄停車場一覧」公開に際しての　まえがき）, I wrote that Mr. Masuda has occasionally provided me with the simple text (plain text) of his "Railway History Database"（hereinafter referred to as "Masuda Data"（益田データ））, which forms the basis of the "List of Private and National Railway Stations"（私鉄国鉄　停車場一覧）, and that Ishino has converted it into data using the Japanese-made database software "Kiri"（日本製データベースソフトウェア『桐』）and checked it in various ways.

For details about this "Masuda Data", please see the "Introduction/Overview" section of　"Japan's Railways: All Lines & Stations"（日本の鉄道全路線＆全停車場）.

On the other hand, Ishino's "Kiri" data not only includes the "Headings"（見出し）(data on the date the company name was changed) printed in bold in the "Wakuda Book", but also the data in the first and last lines of the "Chronology of Section Opening Order"（区間開業順の年表）(data on the dates of the company's first opening and the complete line closure (including mergers, transfers, and acquisitions)).

Specifically, the data is divided into the categories of "4-digit number / Wakuda Number (4 digits + consecutive number) / railway or tramway / old company name / generation / changes/closure details (from) / from date / to date / changes/closure details (to) / new company name Wakuda Number / new company name or closure/merger/transfer/acquisition", and one record is created for each company name change.

So, I compared the company names and dates (from/to) in the "Masuda Data" with Ishino's "Kiri" data, identified the company names and dates that were inconsistent, and informed Mr. Masuda, who then examined them one by one.

In the newly released ＜Ａ＞ and ＜Ｂ＞, for each section in the "Wakuda Book" where there was a possible error, Mr. Masuda entered the references (publication date/posting date) and pages on which the information was based as "sources"（典拠）.

Therefore, in places where "Masuda Data" matches the data in the "Wakuda Book", the "source" column is, as a general rule, left blank.

Editor Ishino feels deeply moved that we have finally been able to release ＜Ａ＞ and ＜Ｂ＞ at the "Railway Forum"（鉄道フォーラム）, marking a milestone in this series of data releases.

Although it is still far from perfect, I hope that by making this available to the public, research into the history of private railways will progress significantly.

If you notice anything strange in the data, no matter how small, please let us know by posting your comments on the "Railway History Discussion Room"（鉄道歴史談話室） message board (the "Railway Forum"（鉄道フォーラム） member page). Thank you in advance.

■ Differences from the data published in the "Wakuda Book"（「和久田本」掲載データとの相違点）…… The following details are available in Japanese

　　　※The editor independently sets a unique 5-digit number by adding a serial number starting from 1 to the end in the order in which the company name appears in the "Wakuda 4-digit number (serial number for each railway operator)".

　　　※The policy is to keep the four-digit number as unchanged as possible. The rule that the last two digits of the four digits are from Railway 01 and Tramway 51 will be adopted as is.

　　　※This "Wakuda Number (a unique five-digit number)" can identify the era (generation), whether it is a railway or tramway, and the prefecture it belongs to, even if the company name is the same.

　　　However, in many cases, the "Approval/Permission Date" or "Registration Date" is used instead because the "Implementation Date" is unknown.

　　　Some businesses even use the founding date as the "Registration Date". Therefore, the priority of the dates used is as follows：

　　　※In the "Wakuda Book", the generations "I" and "II" are assigned only to companies in different locations in the same prefecture, such as 10031 Hokkaido Railway (I)（北海道鉄道）and 10082 Hokkaido Railway (II).

　　　※In addition, in the ＜Ａ＞ and ＜Ｂ＞ data, generations are also assigned to cases where past company names have been revived with the same four digits, such as 56015 Sunzu Railway（駿豆鉄道）and 56017 Sunzu Railway.

　　　※Furthermore, the "Masuda Data" also includes data on company names before the first line opened (company names at the time of establishment) and companies that only had licenses (railways) and patents (tramways) and never opened. These company names are also taken into account when assigning generations, so the number of generations has increased significantly.

　　　※Cases where the "Wakuda 4-digit number" is the same, but the companies are in different groups or should be in different groups (there may be overlapping periods between [From] and [To]).

　　　※The first two digits of the "Wakuda Number" are the name of the prefecture where the company is located, but the following 19 five digits have been changed to the name of the prefecture that the editor considers to be the main one (the "Wakuda Number" itself remains unchanged).

　　　※Adopted the "Hepburn system"（ヘボン式）used for station name signs during the Japanese National Railways（日本国有鉄道）era.

　　　※The Osaka Expo and Okinawa Ocean Expo are also listed in the "Wakuda Book". The abolition date is the day after the last business day, so it will be the day after the closing day of the Expo.

● Company name change on the same day（同一日に会社名変更）＝ There are 17 pairs (only some are available at "Wakuda Book")

　　　We would like to thank "Google Translate" for creating the English version. ＝ https://translate.google.co.jp/?hl=ja&sl=ja&tl=en&op=translate

■ Important notes about the final edition of the "Wakuda Book"（「和久田本」最終刊についての、重要な注意点）

The book that preceded the final edition of "Private Railway History Research Materials for Railway Fans"（鉄道ファンのための私鉄史研究資料）was "Private Railway History Handbook"（私鉄史ハンドブック）, and on page 1 it states, "This time, I entered the majority of this table into a word processor myself and sent it to print. Because of this, the author bears greater responsibility for the content than ever before".

However, the final edition, "Private Railway History Research Materials for Railway Fans"（鉄道ファンのための私鉄史研究資料）, contains no mention of this, so it seems that this was not word-processed data, but was all newly entered at the printing company.

I imagine that the typesetting became so complicated by the boxes around the "Chronology" and "Number of Cars" and the small font size that it was deemed impossible to do using word-processed data.

Perhaps because of this, I noticed that there were 14 clear typos (proofreading errors) in the final edition, "Private Railway History Research Materials for Railway Fans"（鉄道ファンのための私鉄史研究資料）, where the dates and content were correct in his previous book, "Private Railway History Handbook"（私鉄史ハンドブック）.

The data presented here is created as a hobby by the author. The content may be changed without notice. You are free to use the data for personal, non-commercial purposes, but its use for commercial or profit-making purposes is prohibited.

Please note that the author is under no obligation to correct any inaccuracies in this data. The author is not involved in, and accepts no responsibility or liability for, any problems or damages that may arise in connection with this data.