Shin-Ōsaka Station in the context of "Tōkaidō Shinkansen"

The San'yō Shinkansen (山陽新幹線) is a line of the Japanese Shinkansen high-speed rail network, connecting Shin-Osaka in Osaka with Hakata Station in Fukuoka, the two largest cities in western Japan. Operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West), it is a westward continuation of the Tōkaidō Shinkansen and also serves other major cities in between on Honshu and Kyushu islands such as Kobe, Himeji, Okayama, Hiroshima, and Kitakyushu, through the Shin-Kanmon Tunnel. The Kyushu Shinkansen continues south of Hakata to Kagoshima. The San'yō Shinkansen connects Hakata with Osaka in two and a half hours, with trains operating at a maximum speed of 300 km/h (186 mph) for most of the journey. Some Nozomi trains operate continuously on San'yō and Tōkaidō Shinkansen lines, connecting Tokyo and Hakata in five hours.

The Central Japan Railway Company is the main railway company operating in the Chūbu (Nagoya) region of central Japan. It is officially abbreviated in English as JR Central and occasionally as JR Tokai (Japanese: JR東海). The term Tōkai refers to the Tōkai region (the southern portion of Central Japan), in which the company chiefly operates.

JR Central's operational hub is Nagoya Station, and the company's administrative headquarters are located in the JR Central Towers above the building. The busiest and longest railway line operated by JR Central is the Tōkaidō Main Line between Atami and Maibara; this largely parallels the company's high-speed rail service, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, which runs between Tokyo and Shin-Ōsaka. JR Central is additionally responsible for the Chūō Shinkansen – an under-construction maglev service between Tokyo and Osaka, which is due to start operation between Tokyo and Nagoya in 2034.

Nozomi (のぞみ; "Wish" or "Hope") is the fastest train service running on the Tokaido and San'yō Shinkansen lines in Japan. The service stops at only the largest stations, and services using N700 series equipment reach speeds of 300 km/h (186 mph) along the stretch between Shin-Ōsaka and Hakata. The trip between Tokyo and Osaka, a distance of 515 kilometres (320 mi), takes 2 hours 21 minutes on the fastest Nozomi service, with the fastest service between Tokyo Station and Hakata taking 4 hours 45 minutes.

The trains stop at fewer stations than the Hikari and Kodama trains. On the Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Tokyo and Shin-Ōsaka, Nozomi trains stop only at Shinagawa, Shin-Yokohama, Nagoya and Kyōto. On the Sanyō Shinkansen between Shin-Ōsaka and Hakata, all Nozomi trains stop at Shin-Kobe, Hiroshima, Okayama and Kokura, with certain trains also stopping at additional stations.