Fans holding cameras and Hello Kitty merchandise packed the platform at the western Japan station to witness the last departure, Kyodo News reported. The wire service said about one million people had ridden the train since its June 2018 debut. As it pulled away, the crowd waved and called out “thank you.”
The train was operated by West Japan Railway, known as JR West, in collaboration with Sanrio, the Japanese company behind Hello Kitty. JR West launched it as a tourism draw for western Japan, wrapping the exterior in a pink ribbon motif that the operator said was meant to symbolize connecting communities along the route.
Two of its eight cars carried dedicated Hello Kitty themes: an exhibition car and gift shop showcasing regional products, and a passenger car decorated from seats to ceiling with the character. The standard station-arrival chime was replaced with a Hello Kitty melody.
Shinkansen train adorned with special livery bearing popular character Hello Kitty. Photo by AFP |
The train ran once a day as a Kodama all-stations service on the Sanyo Shinkansen line, linking Shin-Osaka with Hakata in Fukuoka and stopping at major western Japan cities including Kobe, Himeji, Okayama and Hiroshima. According to J-CAST Newsthe final Hello Kitty service departed Shin-Osaka at 11:37 a.m., bound for Hakata one last time.
The retirement is less about Hello Kitty than about the train beneath the wrapping. The service used a 500-series Shinkansen, one of the most distinctive trains Japan has ever built, and JR West is phasing out the entire 500-series fleet.
Introduced in 1997, the series was the first Shinkansen to run at 300 kph in regular passenger service, briefly ranking among the fastest trains in the world. Its long, tapered nose and near-cylindrical body were engineered to cut noise and air resistance at high speed, and the design has remained a favorite among rail enthusiasts decades later. Only nine sets were ever built.
As newer N700-series trains took over, the 500 series was pulled from premium Nozomi service in 2010 and reassigned to slower all-stations runs in western Japan. JR West has said it will retire the remaining sets by 2027, replacing them with shortened eight-car N700-series trains.
The 500-series train set had an earlier life as a pop-culture train. From 2015 it ran in a livery themed around the anime “Evangelion,” marking the Sanyo Shinkansen’s 40th anniversary, before its Hello Kitty makeover in 2018.
Themed trains have become a recurring marketing tool for Japan’s regional rail operators. JR Kyushu launched a Shinkansen decorated with Nintendo’s Super Mario characters in late 2025. JR West has not announced whether another themed train will succeed the Hello Kitty service on the Sanyo line.
Hello Kitty, created by Sanrio in 1974, remains one of the world’s most commercially valuable characters, with a presence spanning theme parks, fashion and licensing deals across dozens of countries and territories.
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