Hokuriku Shinkansen, formerly named Nagano Shinkansen, connects Tokyo to the northern part of the Chubu region. While the first phase of the extension was going to open in 2015, JR East and West jointly developed the new generation train. Trains for JR East, known as E7 Series, also operate on Joetsu Shinkansen. Since its introduction in 2013, the production of trains continued nowadays. The trains built in recent years are to replace the fleet destroyed during a typhoon and to prepare for the further extension of Hokuriku Shinkansen.
