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Private company

JR Bus

Bus operations of the Japan Railways Group companies

JR Bus collectively refers to the bus operations of Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies in Japan. JR Bus is operated by six regional companies, with JR East and JR West operating two each while the others operate one each. JR Bus companies provide regional, long distance, and chartered bus services.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

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Intercitydd jrtokaibus
Photo: リニモ１号, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

JR Bus collectively refers to the bus operations of Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies in Japan. JR Bus is operated by six regional companies, with JR East and JR West operating two each while the others operate one each. JR Bus companies provide regional, long distance, and chartered bus services.2

The story

The Ministry of Railways of Japan started its first bus operation in Aichi Prefecture in 1930 and gradually expanded bus routes. The Japanese National Railways (JNR), public corporation established in 1949, succeeded the bus operations, then called Kokutetsu Bus or JNR Bus. In 1987, JNR was divided into regional railway companies together with its bus operations. JR companies later separated their bus operations to subsidiaries in 1988 (JR East, JR Central, JR West), 2000 (JR Hokkaido), 2001 (JR Kyushu) and 2004 (JR Shikoku).

From Wikipedia’s article on JR Bus, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

Expressway route vehicles

JR Bus Tohoku, JR Bus Kanto, JR Tokai Bus and Chugoku JR Bus share a common livery based on the JNR Bus livery.

From Wikipedia’s article on JR Bus, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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