In 1964, Japan's Tokaido Shinkansen (bullet train) line was the world's first commercial-service, high-speed railway operating at more than 200 km/h. Since then, the Tokaido Shinkansen has demonstrated itself as a successful business and technological advancement. Historically, the Japanese high-speed train system, the Shinkansen, has employed a power-distributed system, an electric multiple-unit (EMU) system, with many advantages such as low axle load and good traction and braking performance. High-speed EMUs take advantage of technological innovations such as electronic technology. An innovative alternating current (AC) drive system, comprising a power converter with a gate turn-off thyristor and AC asynchronous motors, brought a high-performance and lightweight traction system to high-speed EMUs in the 1990s. In EMUs, traction system equipment can be distributed over a train set, and tractive axles throughout the train set can obtain required tractive force without putting a heavy load on the axle. Thus, maximum axle load is reduced, and a lightweight, high-performance train results. Furthermore, recent innovations, such as low switching loss power devices and high-power permanent magnets, have improved AC drive systems of high-speed EMUs of the 21st century. Features and advantages of high-speed EMU systems on the Shinkansen are described, as are recent technological innovations that have given birth to lightweight traction systems, such as the permanent magnet synchronous traction motor and power converters with train–draft-cooling systems. Environmentally friendly aspects of these innovative EMUs are introduced as well.

In 1964, the Tokaido Shinkansen marked the start of the world's first commercial service high-speed railway that operates at over 200 km/h. Since then, the Tokaido Shinkansen has demonstrated successful business and technological advancement. With the speeding-up of the Shinkansen, environmental matters such as noise and vibration have become critical issues. Measures taken to counter noise and vibration-such as weight reduction and aerodynamics-also effect global environmental measures to reduce energy consumption and CO 2 emission. With the introduction of the Series 300, there was a system change of applying an AC drive system, and the lightweight body realized performance improvement over the earlier Series 0.The high-speed EMUs have readily taken advantage of technological innovation such as those achieved in electronics technology. In particular, an innovative AC drive system comprising a power converter with a GTO thyristor and asynchronous motors realized a high-performance and lightweight traction system for high-speed EMUs in the 1990s. Furthermore, recent innovations in electronics technology, such as low switching loss power devices and high-power permanent magnets, have improved the AC drive systems of the high-speed EMUs of the 21st century.This article starts out by introducing environmentally friendliness of the Shinkansen trains in terms of low energy consumption by means of traction system change, and then proceeds to describe the recent technological innovations that have given birth to lightweight traction systems, such as the Permanent Magnet Synchronous traction Motor (PMSM) and power converters with train-draft-cooling systems. The article concludes by summing up the environmentally friendly aspects of the Tokaido Shinkansen. 

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In recent years, many studies on the