The E7 Series: The Copper-Striped Shinkansen of the Snow Country

Ivory white, sky blue and a copper stripe: the E7 Series Shinkansen wears its colours quietly, and that restraint is the point. It runs the Hokuriku and Joetsu lines through heavy-snow country, built jointly with JR West's near-identical W7 twin and carrying a Gran Class car at one end. Our latest JRPass guide profiles the train's design, its engineering, where you'll actually ride it, and how the fleet came back from a 2019 flood.

Special update: You can now buy single rail tickets for Japan’s Golden Route on JRPass.com - single fares, one-way, fully digital, including the Shinkansen 'bullet' train.

Quick Answer — What Is the E7 Series?

The E7 Series is the ivory-and-copper Shinkansen of the Hokuriku and Joetsu lines, jointly built by JR East and JR West as a near-identical pair badged E7 and W7. Designed for steep gradients and heavy snowfall, it has been running since March 2014 and carries Gran Class in car 12 of every set. It is the standard train from Tokyo to Kanazawa (about 2.5 hours) and Niigata (about 1 hour 37 minutes).

A Design of Quiet Elegance

The E7's design blends traditional Japanese colours with a modern shape under a concept called "wa no mirai," roughly "the future of Japanese tradition." Kawasaki Heavy Industries shaped the train under designer Ken Okuyama's supervision, and the concept shows up in several deliberate details:

The ivory white body carries a copper stripe and a sky blue upper band, inspired by traditional inlay work, copperware and the open skies along the line.
Seat tones are muted rather than bright, paired with natural trim materials and soft cabin lighting.
Every seat has a power outlet, even in ordinary class, and seats carry Braille lettering, with ostomate equipment in the multipurpose lavatories.
All toilets are Western-style, with heated bidet functions throughout the train.

The design earned the E7 a Good Design Award in 2014 and the Blue Ribbon Award in 2015.

E7 vs W7

E7 and W7 are the same train design under two names, with JR East owning the E7 sets and JR West owning the W7 sets. The split exists because the Hokuriku Shinkansen is run jointly, with responsibility divided like this:

JR East operates the line from Tokyo to Jōetsumyōkō.
JR West operates the line from Jōetsumyōkō to Tsuruga, though both E7 and W7 sets run the whole route.
Seating, layout, and onboard comfort are identical between the two, whichever badge happens to be on the nose.
Reservations, passes, and pricing work exactly the same regardless of which company's set you board.

Rather than build two different trains for one line, the companies developed a single design and simply badge it differently depending on which company owns that particular set.

Built for the Mountains

The E7/W7 was engineered for steep mountain gradients, and its toughest test is the continuous climb from Annaka-Haruna to Karuizawa, which drivers take without dropping speed. Snow is the other half of the brief, since both lines cross some of Japan's snowiest regions, so the tracks rely on several practical fixes:

Heated points keep the track switches from freezing.
Sprinklers melt snow before it compacts on the rails.
Snow sheds shield exposed track from drifts and avalanches.
Track design varies in the snowiest sections to ease clearing.

Together, these measures mean heavy snow usually brings slowdowns rather than full closures, though extreme snowfall can still cause delays.

Where You'll Ride It

The E7 and W7 run every Hokuriku Shinkansen train, from Tokyo via Nagano and Kanazawa to Tsuruga, while the E7 alone runs the Joetsu Shinkansen to Niigata. Services differ by speed and stops:

Kagayaki is the fastest Hokuriku service, reaching Kanazawa from Tokyo in about 2.5 hours.
Hakutaka stops more often on its way to Tsuruga, while Asama runs only to Nagano.
Tsurugi shuttles between Toyama and Tsuruga.
Toki is the main Joetsu service, reaching Niigata in as little as 1 hour 37 minutes.
Tanigawa runs shorter Joetsu trips, extending to Gala Yuzawa Station in the ski season.

Ordinary seats on both lines are covered by the Japan Rail Pass, and regional rail passes such as the Hokuriku Arch Pass cost less than a 7-day nationwide pass. Without a pass, a reserved Kagayaki seat to Kanazawa costs about ¥14,400 to ¥14,800, or about ¥10,600 to ¥11,000 to Niigata. Many travellers continue from Tsuruga to Osaka on the Thunderbird, then take the Tokaido Shinkansen back to Tokyo with single Shinkansen tickets booked online.

IC cards cover JR trains around Niigata and Nagano, though some local buses are still cash only. Both cities are worth a night or two, and the wider Chūbu region offers hotels and ryokans from the Japanese Alps to the Sea of Japan coast.

Gran Class and Comfort

Every E7/W7 set has three classes: ordinary cars, a Green Car and a single Gran Class car (car 12), the closest thing JR East and JR West offer to first class. The upgrade shows in several ways:

Just 18 leather shell seats sit two-by-one, versus 2+2 in the Green Car.
The seat pitch is 1,300 mm, against 1,160 mm in the Green Car, with deeper recline.
An attendant, light meal, and drinks come only on Kagayaki trains.
Hakutaka, Asama, Toki and Tanigawa are seat-only, with a blanket in the overhead rack.

Plenty of travellers find the Green Car comfortable enough, but a Kagayaki Gran Class seat to Kanazawa costs about ¥32,000 one-way, extra even with a JR Pass, for a premium rail experience without a sleeper.

A Comeback Story

The E7 fleet bounced back from its worst setback, losing ten sets to Typhoon Hagibis in October 2019, and today it covers more ground than ever. The Chikuma River, which runs past Nagano, burst its banks during the storm and flooded the Nagano Shinkansen Rolling Stock Center, destroying eight E7 and two W7 sets, 120 carriages in total, and about a third of the Hokuriku fleet.

The damage to the fleet was severe, but the recovery came in three stages:

Direct Tokyo-to-Kanazawa trains returned on 25 October 2019, though at reduced frequency while the fleet was short of trains.
JR East wrote off its eight lost sets, valued at ¥11.8 billion, and budgeted about ¥30 billion for new ones as E7 production continued until 2023.
The E7 became the only train on the Joetsu Shinkansen in March 2023, and the fleet reached Tsuruga when the Hokuriku line was extended in March 2024.

The episode also showed that typhoon safety follows a different rulebook from snow-ready engineering, since heated points and sprinklers were never built for floods. JR East's cost figures cover only its own sets, not JR West's two W7 losses, and JMA's tropical cyclone information is worth checking when travelling in late summer or autumn.

FAQs

These answers cover what travellers most often ask about the E7's routes, passes, Gran Class, and the 2019 flood:

Q: Which lines use the E7?
A: The E7 and its near-identical W7 twin run every Hokuriku Shinkansen service, while E7 sets alone run the entire Joetsu Shinkansen.

Q: What's the difference between E7 and W7?
A: Essentially none, since they are the same jointly built train, with the E7 sets owned by JR East and the near-identical W7 sets owned by JR West.

Q: Does the E7 have Gran Class?
A: Yes, every E7/W7 set carries a Gran Class car as car 12, at the Tsuruga and Niigata end of the train.

Q: What is the E7 Shinkansen?
A: It is the ivory-and-copper Shinkansen of the Hokuriku and Joetsu lines, built for mountain gradients and heavy snow, with Gran Class aboard.

Q: Was part of the E7 fleet damaged in a flood?
A: Yes, a 2019 typhoon flooded the Nagano depot, and ten trainsets were scrapped, though direct Tokyo-to-Kanazawa trains returned at reduced frequency on 25 October 2019.

Q: What do the E7's colours represent?
A: The ivory body, copper stripe, and sky blue band reflect the "wa no mirai" concept, pairing Hokuriku craft colours with a modern shape.

Q: How fast does the E7 Shinkansen go?
A: It has a top speed of 275 km/h, reached on the Joetsu Shinkansen, while the Hokuriku line is limited to 260 km/h.

Q: Is the E7 covered by the Japan Rail Pass?
A: Yes, ordinary seats on both the Hokuriku and Joetsu Shinkansen are covered, but Gran Class costs extra even with a pass.

Q: How many passengers does an E7 set carry?
A: Each 12-car set has a capacity of around 934 passengers across all three classes.

Q: Where was the E7 built?
A: Hitachi and Kawasaki built both types, with J-TREC also building E7 sets and Kinki Sharyo also building W7 sets.