Hokkaido shinkansen dream finally comes true

The Hokkaido Shinkansen Line, a high-speed railway connecting Hokkaido with Honshu via an undersea tunnel, will be the culmination of an epic project 42 years in the making.The project involved difficult construction work for the Seikan Tunnel, including many worker fatalities. It also saw heated competition for state funds with other regional communities eager to be linked with Tokyo through vaunted shinkansen services.

The Hokkaido Shinkansen Line project to connect Aomori and Sapporo was adopted by the government in November 1973. But the government put a temporary freeze on the project in September 1982 due to economic stagnation after the second oil crisis and the enormous debts burdening the state-run Japanese National Railways.Subsequently, Hokkaido faced rival bids from other municipalities for a slice of the limited national budget for shinkansen lines.