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The story
After the Nagaoka Festival’s Grand Fireworks Display held on August 2 in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture, more than 200 passengers were unable to board the last Joetsu Shinkansen non-reserved-seat train bound for Tokyo. Reporting by the Niigata Nippo has revealed that JR East had already voiced concerns back in February about the proposed changes to the festival’s program, warning there was “a risk some people won’t be able to board.” JR East reportedly asked the Nagaoka Fireworks Foundation to reconsider, but the request went unheeded. On 5ch, opinions were split over whether the Foundation had given adequate advance notice, and over the rule preventing Shinkansen trains from running after midnight.
9/12 (Sat) 11:30 JST
Niigata Nippo
Regarding the issue in which large numbers of visitors were unable to board the last Tokyo-bound Joetsu Shinkansen non-reserved-seat train after the Nagaoka Festival’s Grand Fireworks Display held in Nagaoka City on August 2, it has been learned — through reporting by the Niigata Nippo, as of the 12th — that JR East had already expressed reluctance in late February, when shown the proposed program changes, warning that “there is a concern people will be unable to board the last train.” JR East reportedly asked the organizing Nagaoka Fireworks Foundation to reconsider, but says its request was not accepted.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
http://xxup.org/Ved51.png
That's just dumb
Everyone spends their money differently
Maybe you don't know this, but
it's a fireworks show worth taking the bullet train for
My daughter once told me: whoever calls someone else stupid is the real idiot
That's just scummy, plain and simple
Pushing the last train back later would cut into the maintenance/inspection (and weed-clearing) window, maybe?
Trains can't run past midnight, that's the rule
Working backward from the Tokyo arrival time, leaving Nagaoka after 10:30pm is already cutting it close
It's actually against the law for the Shinkansen to run past midnight
It's not some loose arrangement with residents along the line or a self-imposed rule — it's the law
It's obviously stingy JR's fault
Shinkansen can't run after midnight.
That's not some rule JR made up on its own, so there was no way to add more trains beyond that.
Then you won't get people who bought a ticket but couldn't actually board
That'd work if they also banned standing in the deck areas
But in reality, even packed Nozomi trains during peak season end up with standing passengers overflowing not just into the decks but the aisles too
That's genuinely unpleasant
That'd solve it
Happy ending
Exactly
It's only about 500 yen or so more to Nagaoka
And booking through eki-net (JR East's reservation site) sometimes makes it even cheaper
If a lot of people are traveling from far away to watch, why not just end it earlier?
Surely they could be that flexible
These fireworks are a memorial for the victims of the Nagaoka air raid
They're not for tourists — they're for the people who died
That's the whole reason the festival exists
Sounds like this isn't for the Tokyo-area crowd's sake — see Re: #102. Only people who go with a humble "if I may be allowed to watch" attitude should be there, apparently
If it doesn't profit the locals
and doesn't help revitalize the area, they might as well scrap the fireworks festival
or drive, as long as you're careful not to doze off at the wheel
Since driving long-distance right after watching fireworks is risky, the safe pattern is to stay at a hotel somewhere and sleep before heading home
Delaying the program to squeeze a bit more money out of visitors for the local economy is one thing, but the moment you've got a flood of spectators desperately trying to force their way home, that's just bad event management
You probably can't even get a hotel room in the first place
through their official website and local media,
saying "watching the fireworks to the end means you'll miss the last Shinkansen, so please be careful"
And on the day of the event, there were notices posted all over the venue too
Honestly, neither JR nor the organizers are particularly at fault. This is basically on the visitors themselves
Like I wrote in Re: #91, there was publicity both beforehand and on the day
Re: #105
There's a rule that Shinkansen can't run past midnight, so it's just not possible
so they should do the same as a special service for the Nagaoka fireworks
If you go as far as Tsubame-Sanjo or Niigata City, there should be hotels
Hotels in the prefecture are probably fully booked, or insanely expensive if you can even find one
Even for the Omagari fireworks in Akita, tourists end up staying as far away as neighboring Morioka
so Nagaoka is probably even worse
There's no vacancy anywhere
https://greta.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/poverty/1785708993/
Non-reserved-seat Shinkansen "beggars" (slang for those who skimp on reserved seats) are having a genuinely brutal time lmaooooooooooooooooo [398059782]
https://greta.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/poverty/1785763614/
Rough
62 [We interrupt this program, but reposting to affiliate/aggregator sites is prohibited] (Wacchoi W cf23-h/JK) 2026/08/03 (Mon) 22:38:07.81 ID:sb1RVFlA0
Note: this was in a reserved-seat car
Shoshin @Sho_signal (2026/08/03 00:50:28)
Came back from the Nagaoka fireworks on train No. 384 when it was packed to capacity……
I heard people were also left stranded at Nagaoka Station…
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOunlMEbsAA4qVu.jpg
https://x.com/Sho_signal/status/2083943522177331545
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The Nagaoka Festival’s Grand Fireworks Display originated as a memorial for the victims of the Nagaoka air raid near the end of the Pacific War — it isn’t simply a tourist event, and that history is baked into how it’s run. At the same time, Shinkansen trains can’t operate past midnight due to maintenance work, so even when the fireworks wrap up sometime in the 8 p.m. hour, it’s structurally common for visitors to miss the last train to Tokyo. What came to light this time is that JR East had already flagged concerns about the proposed schedule change back in February, yet the Nagaoka Fireworks Foundation didn’t reconsider. On the thread, opinion was split: some credited the Foundation for publicizing in advance that staying to the end would mean missing the last Shinkansen, while others criticized the response as inadequate, arguing that real countermeasures — like extra trains or addressing the hotel shortage — were still lacking. Some called for making every seat reserved, but others pointed out that even reserved-seat cars end up with standing passengers in the aisles during peak season, so that alone wouldn’t be a complete fix.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Breaking News Plus) thread “[Niigata] Over 200 Shinkansen Passengers Left Stranded After Nagaoka Fireworks — JR Flagged Concerns in February, But They Went Unheeded.”
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