Officials from Shikoku gathered in Tokyo on August 21 to rally for shinkansen services to be extended to Japan’s smallest main island, located southwest of Osaka.

The event was organized by a group made up of the island's four prefectures and regional economic organizations seeking to bring the shinkansen to Shikoku.

About 700 people, including local governors, mayors and business leaders, attended the rally.

The group envisions branching out from Okayama Station on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line on Japan's largest main island of Honshu and passing the Seto Ohashi Bridge to Shikoku.

From there, the line would connect with places such as the capital cities of Kagawa, Tokushima, Ehime and Kochi prefectures.

The national government, however, has not even compiled a development plan for extending bullet train services to Shikoku.

S/ Nagai Keisuke, Chairman of group seeking shinkansen in Shikoku / Shikoku has been left behind as the only region where there are no specific development plans for shinkansen services. Now is the time for us to unite in delivering the passionate thoughts behind the approximately 452,000 signatures on our petition to the government toward early construction.

Rally participants passed a resolution to ask the central government to allocate the budget from next fiscal year for a statutory survey that would pave the way for upgrading their call to a development plan.

They also visited ruling party executives and officials of organizations like the transport ministry to seek their cooperation.