ABSTRACT
Having established that the shinkansen can be seen as symbolic, while acknowledging that we need to be aware of possible limitations of doing this, it is possible to use it as a tool to study Japan and its society. This chapter will concentrate on an area that has become perhaps the most infamous issue in relation to the shinkansen. The standard terminology in English used to describe this issue is ‘pork-barrel politics’. Given the sentiment expressed in the statement above, and his belief that the more obvious something is, the harder it is to prove,1
Sherlock Holmes would no doubt enjoyed investigating the supposed link between political intervention and the shinkansen.
