The German train disaster has stung Japan into checking its own superfast "bullet train" service despite its unblemished 34-year safety record, officials in Tokyo said yesterday.
The Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto, said the German tragedy had led Japan to "reconfirm the danger of a high-speed railway as a country which also owns one".
"That is what I can say now," he said, adding that there had been conflicting information on the cause and other details of the German accident, in which 12 of the train's 14 carriages were derailed at around 200 kilometres (125 miles) an hour.
East Japan Railway Co. (JR East), the largest of six companies operating the nationwide train network, was sending a specialist from its Paris office to gather information on the accident, a company spokesman said. JR East was also checking 59 viaducts crossing over its super express railways.
Japan's Shinkansen, externally advertised as the "bullet train" service, was first launched in 1964 between Tokyo and Osaka and has spread over to four trunk lines on the nationwide network, formerly run by the now-defunct national railways. Shinkansen trains run at more than 200 k.p.h.
Meanwhile, international expressions of sorrow continued to arrive in Germany. The Russian President, Mr Boris Yeltsin, sent condolences to the German Chancellor, Dr Kohl, yesterday. In the message, Mr Yeltsin said he was "very saddened" by the news.
Mr Yeltsin is due to visit Germany on June 8th for talks with Dr Kohl, whom he describes affectionately as "my friend Helmut."