How fast to bullet trains travel?

The railway was completely electrified in 2006. On April 18, 2007, the new CRH bullet train was introduced on the upgraded railway as part of the Sixth Railway Speed-Up Campaign. A day-time train D31 served the route, departing from Beijing at 10:50 every morning, and arriving at Shanghai at 20:49 in the evening, travelling mostly at 160–200 km/h (up to 250 km/h in a very short section between Anting and Shanghai West). In 2008 overnight sleeper CRH trains were introduced, replacing the locomotive-hauled Z sleeper trains. With a new high-speed intercity line opening between Nanjing and Shanghai in the summer of 2010, the sleeper trains made use of the high-speed line in the Shanghai–Nanjing section, travelling at 250 km/h for a longer distance. The fastest sleeper trains took 9 hours, 49 minutes, with four intermediate stops, at an average speed of 149 km/h.

Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway

The Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway (or Jinghu high-speed railway, from its name in Mandarin) is a high-speed railway long that connects two major economic zones in the People's Republic of China: the Bohai Economic Rim and the Yangtze River Delta. Construction began on April 18, 2008, with the line opened to the public for commercial service on June 30, 2011. It is the world's longest high-speed line ever constructed in a single phase. The line is one of the busiest high speed railways in the world, transporting over 180 million annual passengers in 2017, more than the annual ridership of the entire TGV or Intercity-Express network. It is also China's most profitable high speed rail line, reporting a 6.6 billion yuan net operational profit in 2015.

Under former Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun, the railway line was the first one designed for a maximum speed of 380 km/h in commercial operations. The non-stop train from Beijing South to Shanghai Hongqiao was expected to finish the journey in 3 hours and 58 minutes, averaging, making it the fastest scheduled train in the world, compared to 9 hours and 49 minutes on the fastest trains running on the parallel conventional railway. But following Liu Zhijun's dismissal in February 2011, several major changes were announced. First, trains would be slowed to a maximum speed of, reducing operating costs. At this speed, the fastest trains would take 4 hours and 48 minutes to travel from Beijing South to Shanghai Hongqiao, making one stop at Nanjing South. Additionally, a slower class of trains running at would be operated, making more stops and charging lower fares. On September 21, 2017, 350 km/h operation was restored with the introduction of China Standardized EMU. This reduced travel times between Beijing and Shanghai to about 4 hours 24 minutes on the fastest scheduled trains, attaining an average speed of over a journey of making those services the fastest in the world.

The Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway Co., Ltd. was in charge of construction. The project was expected to cost 220 billion yuan (about $32 billion). An estimated 220,000 passengers are expected to use the trains each day, which is double the current capacity. During peak hours, trains should run every five minutes. 1,140 km, or 87% of the railway is elevated. There are 244 bridges along the line. The 164-km long Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge is the longest bridge in the world, the 114-km long viaduct bridge between Langfang and Qingxian is the second longest in the world, and the Cangde Grand Bridge between Beijing's 4th Ring Road and Langfang is the fifth longest. The line also includes 22 tunnels, totaling. A total of of the length is ballastless.

According to Zhang Shuguang, then deputy chief designer of China's high-speed railway network, the designed continuous operating speed is, with a maximum speed of up to. The average commercial speed from Beijing to Shanghai was planned to be, which would have cut the train travel time from 10 hours to 4 hours. The rolling stock used on this line consists mainly of CRH380 trains. The CTCS-3 based train control system is used on the line, to allow for a maximum speed of 380 km/h of running and a minimum train interval of 3 minutes. With power consumption of 20 MW and capacity of about 1,050 passengers, the energy consumption per passenger from Beijing to Shanghai should be less than 80kWh.

China's two most important cities, Beijing and Shanghai, were not linked by rail until 1912, when the Jinpu railway was completed between Tianjin and Pukou. With the existing railway between Beijing and Tianjin, which was completed in 1900, the Huning railway between Nanjing and Shanghai opened in 1908, interrupted by a ferry between Pukou and Nanjing across the Yangtze River. A weekly Beijing–Shanghai direct train was first introduced in 1913.

In 1933 a train ride from Beijing to Shanghai took around 44 hours, at an average speed of 33 km/h. Passengers had to get off in Pukou with their luggage, board a ferry named "Kuaijie" across the Yangtze, and get on another connecting train in Xiaguan on the other side of the river.

In 1933 the Nanjing Train Ferry was opened for service. The new train ferry, "Changjiang" (Yangtze), built by a British company, was 113.3 meters long, 17.86 meters wide, was able to carry 21 freight cars or 12 passenger cars. Passengers could remain on the train when crossing the river, and the travel time was thus cut to around 36 hours.
The train service was suspended during the Japanese invasion.

In 1949 from Shanghai's North railway station toward Beijing (then Beiping) it took 36 hours, 50 minutes, at an average speed of 40 km/h. In 1956 the trip time was cut to 28 hours, 17 minutes. In the early 1960s the travel time was further cut to 23 hours, 39 minutes.

In October 1968, the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was opened. The travel time was cut to 21 hours, 34 minutes. As new diesel locomotives were introduced in the 1970s, the speed was increased further. In 1986, the travel time was 16 hours, 59 minutes.

China introduced six line schedule reductions from 1997 to 2007. In October 2001, train T13/T14 took about 14 hours from Beijing to Shanghai. On April 18, 2004, Z-series trains were introduced. The trip time was cut to 11 hours, 58 minutes. There were five trains departing around 7 pm every day, each 7 minutes apart, arriving at their destination the next morning.

As the Nanjing Yangtze Bridge connected the two sections of the railway into a continuous line, the entire railway between Beijing and Shanghai was renamed the Jinghu Railway, with "Jing" (京) being the standard Chinese abbreviation for Beijing, and "Hu" (沪), short for Shanghai. The Jinghu Railway has served as China's busiest railway for nearly a century. Due to rapid growth in passenger and freight traffic in the last 20 years, this line has reached and surpassed capacity.

The Jinghu high-speed railway was proposed in the early 1990s, because one quarter of the country's population lived along the existing Beijing-Shanghai rail line In December 1990, the Ministry of Railways submitted to the National People's Congress a proposal to build the Beijing–Shanghai high speed railway parallel to the existing Beijing–Shanghai railway line. In 1995, Premier Li Peng announced that work on the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway would begin in the 9th Five Year Plan (1996–2000). The Ministry's initial design for the high-speed rail line was completed, and a report was submitted for state approval in June 1998. The construction plan was set in 2004, after a five-year debate on whether to use steel-on-steel rail track, or maglev technology. Maglev was not chosen due to its incompatibility with China's existing rail-and-track technology and its high price, which is two times higher than that of conventional rail technology.

Although engineers originally said construction could take until 2015, the China's Ministry of Railways initially promised a 2010 opening date for the new line. However, the Ministry did not anticipate an ensuing debate over the possible use of maglev technology. Although more traditional steel-on-steel rail technology was chosen for the railway, the technology debate resulted in a substantial delay of the railway's feasibility studies, completed in March 2006. The current rolling stock is the CRH380AL, which is a Chinese electric high-speed train that was developed by China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation Limited (CSR). CRH380A is one of the four Chinese train series which have been designed for the new standard operating speed of 380 km/h (236 mph) on newly constructed Chinese high-speed main lines. The other three are CRH380B, CRH380C and CRH380D.

Testing began shortly thereafter on the main line section between Shanghai and Nanjing. This section of the line sits on the soft soil of the Yangtze Delta, providing engineers an example of the more difficult challenges they would face in later construction. In addition to these challenges, high speed trains use extensive amounts of aluminium alloy, with specially designed windscreen glass capable of withstanding avian impacts.

Construction work began on April 18, 2008. Track-laying was started on July 19, 2010, and completed on November 15, 2010. On December 3, 2010, a 16-car CRH380AL trainset set a speed record of on the Zaozhuang West to Bengbu section of the line during a test run. On January 10, 2011, another 16-car modified CRH380BL train set a speed record of during a test run. The overhead catenary work was completed on February 4, 2011 for the entire line. According to CCTV, more than 130,000 construction workers and engineers were at work at the peak of the construction phase.

According to the Ministry of Railways, construction has used twice as much concrete as the Three Gorges dam, and 120 times the amount of steel in the Beijing National Stadium. There are 244 bridges and 22 tunnels built to standardized designs, and the route is monitored by 321 seismic, 167 windspeed and 50 rainfall sensors.

In 2006, it was estimated that the line would cost between CN¥130 billion (US$16.25 billion) and ¥170 billion ($21.25 billion). The following year, the estimated cost had revised to ¥200 billion ($25 billion), or ¥150 million per kilometer. Due to rapid rises in the costs of labor, construction materials and land acquisitions over the previous years, by July 2008, the estimated cost was increased to ¥220 billion ($32 billion). By then, the state-owned company Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway, established to raise funds for the project, had raised ¥110 billion, with the remaining to be sourced from local governments, share offerings, bank loans and, for the first time for a railway project, foreign investment. In the end, investment in the project totaled ¥217.6 billion ($34.7 billion).

In 2016 it was revealed, that last year the Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway Company has total assets of ¥181.54 billion ($28 billion), revenue ¥23.42 billion ($3.6 billion) and a net profit ¥6.58 billion ($1 billion), thus being labeled as the most profitable railway line in the world.

350km/h services utilize the CR400AF trainsets, 300 km/h services use CRH380AL, CRH380BL, and CRH380CL trainsets, while slower 250 km/h services use CRH2A/E and CRH5A trainsets. First and Second Class coaches are available on all trains. On the shorter trains, a six-person Premier Class compartment is available. Available on the longer trains are up to 28 Business Class seats and a full-length dining car.

Tickets were put on sale at 09:00 on June 24, 2011, and sold out within an hour. To compete with the new train service, airlines slashed the cost of flights between Beijing and Shanghai by up to 65%. Economy air fares between Beijing and Shanghai fell by 52%.

More than 90 trains a day run between Beijing South and Shanghai Hongqiao from 07:00 to until 18:00. Sleeper bullet trains on the upgraded railway were cancelled at the beginning, but later resumed. The new line will increase the freight capacity of the old line by 50 million tons per year between Beijing and Shanghai.

In its second week in service, the system experienced three malfunctions in four days. On July 10, 2011, trains were delayed after heavy winds and a thunderstorm caused power supply problems in Shandong. On July 12, 2011, trains were delayed again when another power failure occurred in Suzhou. On July 13, 2011, a transformer malfunction in Changzhou forced a train to half its top speed, forcing passengers to take a backup train. Within two weeks after opening, airline prices had rebounded due to frequent malfunctions on the line. Airline ticket sales were only down 5% in July 2011 compared to June 2011, after the opening of the line. A spokesman for the Ministry of Railways apologized for the glitches and delays, stating that in the two weeks since service had begun only 85.6% of trains had arrived on time. The line's average daily ridership in its initial two weeks of operation was 165,000 passengers daily, while 80,000 passengers every day continued to ride on the slower and less expensive old railway. The figure of 165,000 daily riders is three-quarters of the forecast of 220,000 daily riders and is consistent with a pattern where new rail services build ridership over a period of time after opening (see TGV, Ridership).
On August 12, 2011, after several delays caused by equipment problems, 54 CRH380BL trains running on this line were recalled by their manufacturer. They returned to regular service on November 16, 2011.

By March 2013, the line had carried 100 million passengers.

This line is gradually gaining popularity through the years and it is reaching its capacity at weekends and holidays. With the introduction of the China Standardized EMU, the highest operation speed of the line is raised to 350 kph on September 21, 2017. The fastest train will complete the journey in 4 hours 24 minutes (G7), while making two stops along the trip at Jinan and Nanjing.

On June 13, 2011, the list of fares was announced at a Ministry of Railways press conference. The fares from Beijing South to Shanghai Hongqiao in RMB Yuan are listed below:

Note: Only available on services using the CRH380AL, CRH380BL and CRH380CL trains

On June 14, 2011, the list of stop-by-stop fares was published on the Ministry of Railways' website.

With tickets priced at ¥1750 one way in the sightseeing compartment at the ends of the trains, passengers can sit behind the driver. Tickets at the same price all feature seats which recline in full. Holders of these tickets are additionally given free lounge access at major stations, are served a free meal onboard close to meal times, and are given unlimited refills of non-alcoholic drinks while on board.

The online ticket service opened when brick and mortar ticket service started. Passengers can buy tickets on the internet and pay the fare by debit or credit card. If the passenger uses a 2nd-generation PRC ID Card and does not want any documents printed, they can use their ID card directly as the ticket to pass the AFC, otherwise the passenger must change to a paper ticket prior to travel. Since late 2011, it has also been possible for users of these ID cards to print a ticket with the remark "Ticket Checked" after the end of the trip for reimbursement purposes.

There are 24 stations on the line. Cruise speeds are 300 and 350 km/h depending on services. Fare are calculated based on distance traveled regardless of speed and travel time. More than 40 pairs of daily scheduled train services travel end-to-end along this route, and hundreds more that only use a segment of it.
Note:

* – Lines in italic text are under construction or planned

The travel time column in the following table only list shortest time possible to get to a certain station from Beijing. Different services make different stops along the way and there is no services that stop at every station.

The railway line has some of the longest bridges in the world. They include:

Starting with the Tōkaidō Shinkansen () in 1964, the network has expanded to currently consist of of lines with maximum speeds of, of Mini-Shinkansen lines with a maximum speed of, and of spur lines with Shinkansen services. The network presently links most major cities on the islands of Honshu and Kyushu, and Hakodate on northern island of Hokkaido, with an extension to Sapporo under construction and scheduled to commence in March 2031. The maximum operating speed is (on a 387.5 km section of the Tōhoku Shinkansen). Test runs have reached for conventional rail in 1996, and up to a world record for SCMaglev trains in April 2015.

Shinkansen

The, meaning "new trunkline," but colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, in order to aid economic growth and development. Beyond long-distance travel, some sections around the largest metropolitan areas are used as a commuter rail network. It is operated by five Japan Railways Group companies.

The original Tōkaidō Shinkansen, connecting Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, Japan’s three largest cities, is one of the world's busiest high-speed rail lines. In the one-year period preceding March 2017, it carried 159 million passengers, and since its opening more than five decades ago, it has transported more than 5.6 billion total passengers The service on the line operates much larger trains and at higher frequency than most other high speed lines in the world. At peak times, the line carries up to thirteen trains per hour in each direction with sixteen cars each (1,323-seat capacity and occasionally additional standing passengers) with a minimum headway of three minutes between trains.

Japan's Shinkansen network had the highest annual passenger ridership (a maximum of 353 million in 2007) of any high-speed rail network until 2011, when the Chinese high-speed railway network surpassed it at 370 million passengers annually, reaching over 1.7 billion annual passengers in 2017, though the total cumulative passengers, at over 10 billion, is still larger. While the Shinkansen network has been expanding, Japan's declining population is expected to cause ridership to decline over time. The recent expansion in tourism has boosted ridership marginally.

in Japanese means or, but the word is used to describe both the railway lines the trains run on and the trains themselves. In English, the trains are also known as the bullet train. The term originates from 1939, and was the initial name given to the Shinkansen project in its earliest planning stages. Furthermore, the name, used exclusively until 1972 for trains on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, is used today in English-language announcements and signage.

Japan was the first country to build dedicated railway lines for high-speed travel. Because of the mountainous terrain, the existing network consisted of narrow-gauge lines, which generally took indirect routes and could not be adapted to higher speeds. Consequently, Japan had a greater need for new high-speed lines than countries where the existing standard gauge or broad gauge rail system had more upgrade potential.

Among the key people credited with the construction of the first Shinkansen are Hideo Shima, the Chief Engineer, and Shinji Sogō, the first President of Japanese National Railways (JNR) who managed to persuade politicians to back the plan. Other significant people responsible for its technical development were Tadanao Miki, Tadashi Matsudaira, and Hajime Kawanabe based at the Railway Technology Research Institute (RTRI), part of JNR. They were responsible for much of the technical development of the first line, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen. All three had worked on aircraft design during World War II.

The popular English name "bullet train" is a literal translation of the Japanese term, a nickname given to the project while it was initially being discussed in the 1930s. The name stuck because of the original 0 Series Shinkansen's resemblance to a bullet and its high speed.

The "Shinkansen" name was first formally used in 1940 for a proposed standard gauge passenger and freight line between Tokyo and Shimonoseki that would have used steam and electric locomotives with a top speed of. Over the next three years, the Ministry of Railways drew up more ambitious plans to extend the line to Beijing (through a tunnel to Korea) and even Singapore, and build connections to the Trans-Siberian Railway and other trunk lines in Asia. These plans were abandoned in 1943 as Japan's position in World War II worsened. However, some construction did commence on the line; several tunnels on the present-day Shinkansen date to the war-era project.

Following the end of World War II, high-speed rail was forgotten for several years while traffic of passengers and freight steadily increased on the conventional Tōkaidō Main Line along with the reconstruction of Japanese industry and economy. By the mid-1950s the Tōkaidō Line was operating at full capacity, and the Ministry of Railways decided to revisit the Shinkansen project. In 1957, Odakyu Electric Railway introduced its 3000 series SE Romancecar train, setting a world speed record of for a narrow gauge train. This train gave designers the confidence that they could safely build an even faster standard gauge train. Thus the first Shinkansen, the 0 series, was built on the success of the Romancecar.

In the 1950s, the Japanese national attitude was that railways would soon be outdated and replaced by air travel and highways as in America and many countries in Europe. However, Shinji Sogō, President of Japanese National Railways, insisted strongly on the possibility of high-speed rail, and the Shinkansen project was implemented.

Government approval came in December 1958, and construction of the first segment of the Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka started in April 1959. The cost of constructing the Shinkansen was at first estimated at nearly 200 billion yen, which was raised in the form of a government loan, railway bonds and a low-interest loan of US$80 million from the World Bank. Initial cost estimates, however, had been deliberately understated and the actual figures were nearly double at about 400 billion yen. As the budget shortfall became clear in 1963, Sogo resigned to take responsibility.

A test facility for rolling stock, now part of the line, opened in Odawara in 1962.

The Tōkaidō Shinkansen began service on 1 October 1964, in time for the first Tokyo Olympics. The conventional Limited Express service took six hours and 40 minutes from Tokyo to Osaka, but the Shinkansen made the trip in just four hours, shortened to three hours and ten minutes by 1965. It enabled day trips between Tokyo and Osaka, the two largest metropolises in Japan, changed the style of business and life of the Japanese people significantly, and increased new traffic demand. The service was an immediate success, reaching the 100 million passenger mark in less than three years on 13 July 1967, and one billion passengers in 1976. Sixteen-car trains were introduced for Expo '70 in Osaka. With an average of 23,000 passengers per hour in each direction in 1992, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen was the world's busiest high-speed rail line. As of 2014, the train's 50th anniversary, daily passenger traffic had risen to 391,000 which, spread out over its 18-hour schedule, represented an average of just under 22,000 passengers an hour.

The first Shinkansen trains, the 0 series, ran at speeds of up to, later increased to. The last of these trains, with their classic bullet-nosed appearance, were retired on 30 November 2008. A driving car from one of the 0 series trains was donated by JR West to the National Railway Museum in York, England in 2001.

The Tōkaidō Shinkansen's rapid success prompted an extension westward to Okayama, Hiroshima and Fukuoka (the Sanyō Shinkansen), which was completed in 1975. Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka was an ardent supporter of the Shinkansen, and his government proposed an extensive network paralleling most existing trunk lines. Two new lines, the Tōhoku Shinkansen and Jōetsu Shinkansen, were built following this plan. Many other planned lines were delayed or scrapped entirely as JNR slid into debt throughout the late 1970s, largely because of the high cost of building the Shinkansen network. By the early 1980s, the company was practically insolvent, leading to its privatization in 1987.

Development of the Shinkansen by the privatised regional JR companies has continued, with new train models developed, each generally with its own distinctive appearance (such as the 500 series introduced by JR West). Since 2014, shinkansen trains run regularly at speeds up to, placing them alongside the French TGV and German ICE as the second fastest trains in the world.

Since 1970, development has also been underway for the Chūō Shinkansen, a planned maglev line from Tokyo to Osaka. On 21 April 2015, a seven-car L0 series maglev trainset set a world speed record of.

To enable high-speed operation Shinkansen uses a range of advanced technology compared with conventional rail, achieving not only high speed but also a high standard of safety and comfort. Its success has influenced other railways in the world and the importance and advantage of high-speed rail has consequently been reevaluated.

Shinkansen routes are completely separate from conventional rail lines (except Mini-shinkansen which goes through to conventional lines). Consequently, the shinkansen is not affected by slower local or freight trains (except for Hokkaido Shinkansen while traveling through the Seikan Tunnel), and has the capacity to operate many high-speed trains punctually. The lines have been built without road crossings at grade. Tracks are strictly off-limits with penalties against trespassing strictly regulated by law. It uses tunnels and viaducts to go through and over obstacles rather than around them, with a minimum curve radius of 4,000 meters (2,500 meters on the oldest Tōkaidō Shinkansen).

The Shinkansen uses standard gauge in contrast to the narrow gauge of older lines. Continuous welded rail and swingnose crossing points are employed, eliminating gaps at turnouts and crossings. Long rails are used, joined by expansion joints to minimize gauge fluctuation due to thermal elongation and shrinkage.

A combination of ballasted and slab track is used, with slab track exclusively employed on concrete bed sections such as viaducts and tunnels. Slab track is significantly more cost-effective in tunnel sections, since the lower track height reduces the cross-sectional area of the tunnel, thereby reducing construction costs by up to 30%.
However, the smaller diameter of Shinkansen tunnels compared to some other high-speed lines has resulted in the issue of tunnel boom becoming a concern for residents living close to tunnel portals.

The slab track consists of rails, fasteners and track slabs with a cement asphalt mortar. On the roadbed and in tunnels, circular upstands (measuring 400–520 mm in diameter and 200 mm high) are located at 5 metre intervals. The
prefabricated upstands are made of either reinforced concrete or pre-stressed reinforced concrete; they prevent the track slab from moving along either the latitudinal or the longitudinal directions. One track slab weighs approximately 5 tons, measuring 2220–2340 mm wide, 4900–4950 mm long and 160–200 mm thick.

The Shinkansen employs an ATC (Automatic Train Control) system, eliminating the need for trackside signals. It uses a comprehensive system of Automatic Train Protection. Centralized traffic control manages all train operations, and all tasks relating to train movement, track, station and schedule are networked and computerized.

Shinkansen uses a 25 kV AC overhead power supply (20 kV AC on Mini-shinkansen lines), to overcome the limitations of the 1,500 V direct current used on the existing electrified narrow-gauge system. Power is distributed along the axles of the train to reduce the heavy axle loads under single power cars. The AC frequency of the power supply for the Tokaido Shinkansen is 60 Hz.

Shinkansen trains are electric multiple units, offering fast acceleration, deceleration and reduced damage to the track because of the use of lighter vehicles compared to locomotives or power cars. The coaches are air-sealed to ensure stable air pressure when entering tunnels at high speed.
The Shinkansen is very reliable thanks to several factors, including its near-total separation from slower traffic. In 2016, JR Central reported that the Shinkansen's average delay from schedule per train was 24 seconds. This includes delays due to uncontrollable causes, such as natural disasters. The record, in 1997, was 18 seconds.

The Shinkansen has used the electric multiple unit configuration from the outset, with the 0 Series Shinkansen having all axles powered. Other railway manufacturers were traditionally reluctant, or unable to use distributed traction configurations (e.g. Talgo used the locomotive configuration with the AVE Class 102 and continues with it for the Talgo AVRIL on account of the fact that it is not possible to use powered bogies as part of the Talgo Pendular system). In Japan, significant engineering desirability exists for the electric multiple unit configuration. A greater proportion of motored axles results in higher acceleration, meaning that the Shinkansen does not lose as much time if stopping frequently. Shinkansen lines have more stops in proportion to their lengths than high-speed lines elsewhere in the world.

Over the Shinkansen's 50-plus year history, carrying over 10 billion passengers, there have been no passenger fatalities due to train accidents such as derailments or collisions, despite frequent earthquakes and typhoons. Injuries and a single fatality have been caused by doors closing on passengers or their belongings; attendants are employed at platforms to prevent such accidents. There have, however, been suicides by passengers jumping both from and in front of moving trains. On 30 June 2015, a passenger committed suicide on board a Shinkansen train by setting himself on fire, killing another passenger and seriously injuring seven other people.

There have been two derailments of Shinkansen trains in passenger service. The first one occurred during the Chūetsu earthquake on 23 October 2004. Eight of ten cars of the "Toki" No. 325 train on the Jōetsu Shinkansen derailed near Nagaoka Station in Nagaoka, Niigata. There were no casualties among the 154 passengers.

Another derailment happened on 2 March 2013 on the Akita Shinkansen when the "Komachi" No. 25 train derailed in blizzard conditions in Daisen, Akita. No passengers were injured.

In the event of an earthquake, an earthquake detection system can bring the train to a stop very quickly, newer trainsets are lighter and have stronger braking systems, allowing for quicker stopping. A new anti-derailment device was installed after detailed analysis of the Jōetsu derailment.

Several months after the expose of the Kobe Steel falsification scandal, which is among the suppliers of high-strength steel for Shinkansen trainsets, cracks were found upon inspection of a single bogie, and removed from service on 11 December 2017.

The Shinkansen has had a significant beneficial effect on Japan's business, economy, society, environment and culture in ways beyond mere construction and operation contributions. The results in time savings alone from switching from a conventional to a high-speed network have been estimated at 400 million hours, and the system has an economic impact of per year. That does not include the savings from reduced reliance on imported fuel, which also has national security benefits. Shinkansen lines, particularly in the very crowded coastal Taiheiyō Belt megalopolis, met two primary goals:However, the initial Shinkansen prudence gave way to political considerations to extend the mode to far less populated regions of the country, partly to spread these benefits beyond the key centres of Kanto and Kinki. In some areas regional extension was frustrated by protracted land acquisition issues, sometimes influenced by fierce protests from locals against expanding Narita airport's runways to handle more traffic that extended well into the 2000s. Tokyo's airports were already at or near capacity and there was no room for another civilian airport given the geography and required US military presence. Shinkansen lines were extended to sparsely populated areas with the intent the network would disperse the population away from the capital.

Such expansion had a significant cost. JNR, the national railway company, was already burdened with subsidizing unprofitable rural and regional railways. Additionally it assumed Shinkansen construction debt to the point the government corporation eventually owed some, contributing to it being regionalised and privatized. The privatized JRs eventually paid a total of to acquire JNR's Shinkansen network.

After privatization, the Shinkansen network continues to see significant expansion to less populated areas, but with far more flexibility to spin off unprofitable railways or cut costs than in JNR days. Currently an important factor is the post bubble zero interest-rate policy that allows JR to borrow huge sums of capital without significant concern regarding repayment timing.

Traveling by the Tokaido Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka produces only around 16% of the carbon dioxide of the equivalent journey by car, a saving of 15,000 tons of per year.

Noise pollution concerns mean that increasing speed is becoming more difficult. In Japan, the population density is high and there have been severe protests against the Shinkansen's noise pollution, meaning that its noise is now limited to less than 70 dB in residential areas.
Hence, improvement and reduction of the pantograph, weight saving of cars, and construction of noise barriers and other measures have been implemented. Current research is primarily aimed at reducing operational noise, particularly the tunnel boom phenomenon caused when trains transit tunnels at high speed.

Because of the risk of earthquakes, the Urgent Earthquake Detection and Alarm System (UrEDAS) (earthquake warning system) was introduced in 1992. It enables automatic braking of bullet trains in the case of large earthquakes.

The Tōkaidō Shinkansen often experiences heavy snow in the area around Maibara Station in winter. Trains have to reduce speed, which can disrupt the timetable. Sprinkler systems were later installed, but delays of 10 to 20 minutes still occur during snowy weather. Additionally, treefalls related to excess snow have caused service interruptions. Along the route of the Jōetsu Shinkansen, winter snow can be very heavy, with snow depths of two to three metres, so the line is equipped with stronger sprinklers and slab track, to mitigate the effects of deep snow.
Until 2011, Japan's high-speed rail system had the highest annual patronage of any system worldwide, China's HSR network's patronage reached 1.7 billion and is now the world's highest.

Notes:

Cumulative ridership since October 1964 is over 5 billion passengers for the Tokaido Shinkansen Line alone and 10 billion passengers for Japan's entire shinkansen network.

E5 series trains, capable of up to (initially limited to 300 km/h), were introduced on the Tōhoku Shinkansen in March 2011. Operation at the maximum speed of 320 km/h between and on this route commenced on 16 March 2013, and reduced the journey time to around 3 hours for trains from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori (a distance of ).

Extensive trials using the Fastech 360 test trains have shown that operation at is not currently feasible because of problems of noise pollution (particularly tunnel boom), overhead wire wear, and braking distances. On 30 October 2012, JR East announced that it is pursuing research and development to increase speeds to 360 km/h on the Tohoku Shinkansen by 2020.

, the maximum speed on the approximately 82 km dual gauge section of the Hokkaido Shinkansen (including through the Seikan Tunnel) is. There are approximately 50 freight trains using the dual gauge section each day, so limiting the travel of such trains to times outside of Shinkansen services is not an option. Because of this and other weather-related factors cited by JR East and JR Hokkaido, the fastest journey time between Tokyo and Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto is currently 4 hours, 2 minutes. The new section takes 61 minutes from Shin-Aomori to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto on the fastest services.

By 2018, it is proposed to allow one Shinkansen service each day to travel at (the maximum speed proposed for the tunnel) by ensuring no freight trains are scheduled to travel on the dual gauge section at that time. To achieve the full benefit of Shinkansen trains travelling on the dual gauge section at, other alternatives are being considered, such as a system to automatically slow Shinkansen trains down to when passing narrow-gauge trains, and loading freight trains onto special "Train on Train" standard-gauge trains (akin to a covered piggyback flatcar train) built to withstand the shock wave of oncoming Shinkansen trains traveling at full speed. This would enable a travel time from Tokyo to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto of 3 hours and 45 minutes, a saving of 17 minutes on the current timetable.

The Hokuriku Shinkansen is being extended from Kanazawa to Tsuruga (proposed for completion by 2023) at an estimated cost of 3.04 trillion yen (in 2012 currency).

There are further plans to extend the line from Tsuruga to Osaka, with the 'Obama-Kyoto' route chosen by the government on 20 December 2016, after a government committee investigated the five nominated routes. The five routes that were under investigation are detailed in the Hokuriku Shinkansen page.

Construction of the extension beyond Tsuruga is not expected to commence before 2030, with a projected 15 year construction period. On 6 March 2017 the government committee announced the chosen route from Kyoto to Shin-Osaka is to be via Kyotanabe, with a station at Matsuiyamate on the Katamachi Line.

In order to extend the benefits of the Hokuriku Shinkansen to stations west of Tsuruga before the line to Osaka is completed, JR West is working in partnership with Talgo on the development of a Gauge Change Train (CGT), which will be capable of operating under both the 25 kV AC electrification used on the Shinkansen and the 1.5 kV DC system employed on conventional lines. The six-car train is due to start trials on the Hokuriku Shinkansen and the 1067 mm-gauge Hokuriku and Kosei lines in 2017. As part of the project JR West has already begun trials with a purpose-built 180-metre-long gauge-changer at Tsuruga.

The Hokkaido Shinkansen forms an extension of the Tohoku Shinkansen north of to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station (north of the Hokkaido city of Hakodate) through the Seikan Tunnel, which was converted to dual gauge as part of the project, opening in March 2016.

JR Hokkaido is extending the Hokkaido Shinkansen from Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto to to open by March 2031, with tunnelling work on the 5,265 m Murayama tunnel, situated about 1 km north of Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station, commencing in March 2015, and due to be completed by March 2021. The 211.3 km extension will be approximately 76% in tunnels, including major tunnels such as Oshima (~26.5 km), Teine (~18.8 km) and Shiribeshi (~18 km).

Although an extension from Sapporo to Asahikawa was included in the 1973 list of planned lines, at this time it is unknown whether the Hokkaido Shinkansen will be extended beyond Sapporo.

JR Kyushu is constructing an extension (to be known as the West Kyushu Shinkansen) line of the Kyushu Shinkansen to, partly to full Shinkansen standard gauge construction standards (Takeo Onsen – Nagasaki) with the existing narrow gauge section between Shin-Tosu and Takeo Onsen to be upgraded as part of this project.

This proposal initially involved introducing Gauge Change Trains (GCT) travelling from Hakata to Shin-Tosu (26.3 km) on the existing Kyushu Shinkansen line, then passing through a specific gauge changing (standard to narrow) section of track linking to the existing Nagasaki Main Line, along which it would travel to Hizen Yamaguchi (37.6 km), then onto the Sasebo Line to Takeo Onsen (13.7 km), where another gauge changing section (narrow to standard) would lead onto the final Shinkansen line to Nagasaki (66.7 km). However, technical issues with the development of the GCT bogies means the train will not be available for service until at least 2025, requiring consideration of other options such as'relay' service to ensure the line can open on schedule in 2023.

The proposal shortens the distance between Hakata and Nagasaki by 6.2% (9.6 km), and while only 64% of the route will be built to full Shinkansen standards, it will eliminate the slowest sections of the existing narrow gauge route. Use of the GCT was estimated to result in a time saving of 28.5% (32 minutes) on the current timetable. The proposed time saving if a'relay' service is introduced is unknown at this time.

As part of this proposal, the current 12.8 km section of single track between Hizen Yamaguchi and Takeo Onsen is to be duplicated, with work on that component scheduled to commence in April 2016.

With the completion of excavation of the 1351m Enogushi tunnel, being the sixth tunnel completed in this section, approximately 25% of the 40.7 km of tunnel excavation work on the Takeo Onsen – Nagasaki section has been finished. The entire project is scheduled for completion by March 2023.

Maglev trains have been undertaking test runs on the Yamanashi test track since 1997, running at speeds of over. As a result of this extensive testing, maglev technology is almost ready for public usage. An extension of this test track from 18.4 km to 42.8 km was completed in June 2013, enabling extended high-speed running trials to commence in August 2013. This section will be incorporated into the Chūō Shinkansen which will eventually link Tokyo to Osaka. Construction of the Shinagawa to Nagoya section began in 2014, with 86% of the 286 km route to be in tunnels.

The CEO of JR Central announced plans to have the maglev Chūō Shinkansen operating from Tokyo to by 2027. Following the shortest route (through the Japanese Alps), JR Central estimates that it will take 40 minutes to run from Shinagawa to Nagoya. A subsequent extension to Osaka is planned to be completed by 2045. The planned travel time from Shinagawa to Shin-Osaka is 1 hour 7 minutes. Currently the Tokaido Shinkansen has a minimum connection time of 2 hours 19 minutes.

While the government has granted approval for the shortest route between Tokyo and Nagoya, some prefectural governments, particularly Nagano, lobbied to have the line routed farther north to serve the city of Chino and either Ina or. However, that would increase both the travel time (from Tokyo to Nagoya) and the cost of construction. JR Central has confirmed it will construct the line through Kanagawa Prefecture, and terminate at Shinagawa Station.

The route for the Nagoya to Osaka section is also contested. It is planned to go via Nara, about 40 km south of Kyoto. Kyoto is lobbying to have the route moved north and be largely aligned with the existing Tokaido Shinkansen, which services Kyoto and not Nara.

is the name given to the routes where former narrow gauge lines have been converted to standard gauge to allow Shinkansen trains to travel to cities without the expense of constructing full Shinkansen standard lines.

Two mini-shinkansen routes have been constructed: the Yamagata Shinkansen and Akita Shinkansen. Shinkansen services to these lines traverse the Tohoku Shinkansen line from Tokyo before branching off to traditional main lines. On both the Yamagata/Shinjo and Akita lines, the narrow gauge lines were regauged, resulting in the local services being operated by standard gauge versions of 1,067 mm gauge suburban/interurban rolling stock. On the Akita line between Omagari and Akita, one of the two narrow gauge lines was regauged, and a section of the remaining narrow gauge line is dual gauge, providing the opportunity for Shinkansen services to pass each other without stopping.

The maximum speed on these lines is 130 km/h, however the overall travel time to/from Tokyo is improved due to the elimination of the need for passengers to change trains at Fukushima and Morioka respectively.

As the Loading gauge (size of the train that can travel on a line) was not altered when the rail gauge was widened, only Shinkansen trains specially built for these routes can travel on the lines. At present they are the E3 and E6 series trains.

Whilst no further Mini-shinkansen routes have been proposed to date, it remains an option for providing Shinkansen services to cities on the narrow gauge network.

This is the name for the concept of using a single train that is specially designed to travel on both narrow gauge railway lines and the standard gauge used by Shinkansen train services in Japan. The trucks/bogies of the Gauge Change Train (GCT) allow the wheels to be unlocked from the axles, narrowed or widened as necessary, and then relocked. This allows a GCT to traverse both standard gauge and narrow gauge tracks without the expense of regauging lines.

Three test trains have been constructed, with the second set having completed reliability trials on the Yosan Line east of Matsuyama (in Shikoku) in September 2013. The third set was undertaking gauge changing trials at Shin-Yatsushiro Station (on Kyushu), commencing in 2014 for a proposed three-year period, however testing was suspended in December 2014 after accumulating approximating 33,000 km, following the discovery of defective thrust bearing oil seals on the bogies. The train was being trialled between Kumamoto, travelling on the narrow gauge line to Shin-Yatsushiro, where a gauge changer has been installed, so the GCT could then be trialled on the Shinkansen line to Kagoshima. It was anticipated the train would travel approximately 600,000 km over the three-year trial.

A new "full standard" Shinkansen line is under construction from Takeo Onsen to, with the Shin-Tosu – Takeo Onsen section of the Kyushu Shinkansen branch to remain narrow gauge. GCTs were proposed to provide the Shinkansen service from the line's scheduled opening in March 2023, however with the GCT now being unavailable for service until at least 2025, other options are being considered, such as a'relay' service.

The main Shinkansen lines are:

In practice, the Tokaido, Sanyo and Kyushu lines form a contiguous west/southbound line from Tokyo, as train services run between the Tokaido and Sanyo lines and between the Sanyo and Kyushu lines, though the lines are operated by different companies.

The Tokaido Shinkansen is not physically connected to the lines of the Tohoku Shinkansen at Tokyo Station. Therefore, there is no through service between those lines. All northbound services from Tokyo travel along the Tohoku Shinkansen until at least Ōmiya.

Two further lines, known as "Mini-shinkansen", have also been constructed by re-gauging and upgrading existing sections of line:

There are two standard-gauge lines not technically classified as Shinkansen lines but with Shinkansen services:

Many Shinkansen lines were proposed during the boom of the early 1970s but have yet to be constructed. These are called or "planned Shinkansen". One of these lines, the Narita Shinkansen to Narita Airport, was officially cancelled, but a few remain under development.

The following lines were also proposed in the 1973 plan, but have subsequently been shelved indefinitely.

In addition, the Basic Plan specified that the Jōetsu Shinkansen should start from Shinjuku, not Tokyo Station, which would have required building an additional 30 km of track between Shinjuku and Ōmiya. While no construction work was ever started, land along the proposed track, including an underground section leading to Shinjuku Station, remains reserved. If capacity on the current Tokyo–Ōmiya section proves insufficient, at some point, construction of the Shinjuku–Ōmiya link may be reconsidered.

The Narita Shinkansen project to connect Tokyo to Narita International Airport, initiated in the 1970s but halted in 1983 after landowner protests, has been officially cancelled and removed from the Basic Plan governing Shinkansen construction. Parts of its planned right-of-way were used by the Narita Sky Access Line which opened in 2010. Although the Sky Access Line uses standard-gauge track, it was not built to Shinkansen specifications and there are no plans to convert it into a full Shinkansen line.

In December 2009, then transport minister Seiji Maehara proposed a bullet train link to Haneda Airport, using an existing spur that connects the Tōkaidō Shinkansen to a train depot. JR Central called the plan "unrealistic" due to tight train schedules on the existing line, but reports said that Maehara wished to continue discussions on the idea. The current minister has not indicated whether this proposal remains supported. While the plan may become more feasible after the opening the Chuo Shinkansen (sometimes referred to as a bypass to the Tokaido Shinkansen) frees up capacity, construction is already underway for other rail improvements between Haneda and Tokyo station expected to be completed prior to the opening of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, so any potential Shinkansen service would likely offer only marginal benefit beyond that.

Trains are up to sixteen cars long. With each car measuring in length, the longest trains are 400 m (1/4 mile) end to end. Stations are similarly long to accommodate these trains. Some of Japan's high-speed maglev trains are considered Shinkansen, while other slower maglev trains (such as the Linimo maglev train line serving local community near the city of Nagoya in Aichi, Japan) are intended as alternatives to conventional urban rapid transit systems."Note that these trains were and currently are used only for experimental runs."
Originally intended to carry passenger and freight trains by day and night, the Shinkansen lines carry only passenger trains. The system shuts down between midnight and 06:00 every day for maintenance. The few overnight trains that still run in Japan run on the older narrow gauge network that the Shinkansen parallels.Compared with air transport, the Shinkansen has several advantages, including scheduling frequency and flexibility, punctual operation, comfortable seats, and convenient city-centre terminals.

Shinkansen fares are generally competitive with domestic air fares. From a speed and convenience perspective, the Shinkansen's market share has surpassed that of air travel for journeys of less than 750 km, while air and rail remain highly competitive with each other in the 800–900 km range and air has a higher market share for journeys of more than 1,000 km.Railways using Shinkansen technology are not limited to those in Japan.

Taiwan High Speed Rail operates 700T Series sets built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

The China Railways CRH2, built by CSR Sifang Loco & Rolling stocks corporation, with the license purchased from a consortium formed of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, and Hitachi, is based on the E2-1000 series design.

Class 395 EMUs were built by Hitachi based on Shinkansen technology for use on high-speed commuter services in Britain on the High Speed 1 line.

In 2014, it was announced that Texas Central Railway would build a 300 mile long line using the N700 series rolling stock. The trains will run at over 320 km/h (200 mph).

In December 2015, India and Japan signed an agreement for the construction of India's first high speed rail link connecting Mumbai to Ahmedabad. Funded primarily through Japanese soft loans, the link is expected to cost up to $18.6b and should be operational in about 7 years.

This followed India and Japan conducting feasibility studies on high-speed rail and dedicated freight corridors.

The Indian Ministry of Railways' white-paper Vision 2020 submitted to Indian Parliament by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on 18 December 2009 envisages the implementation of regional high-speed rail projects to provide services at 250–350 km/h.

During Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Tokyo in December 2006, Japan assured cooperation with India in creating a high-speed link between New Delhi and Mumbai. In January 2009, the then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad rode a bullet train travelling from Tokyo to Kyoto.

In December 2013 a Japanese consortium was appointed to undertake a feasibility study of a ~500 km high-speed line between Mumbai and Ahmedabad by July 2015. A total of 7 high-speed lines are in planning stages in India, and Japanese firms have now succeeded in winning contracts to prepare feasibility studies for three of the lines.

The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRC) was incorporated in 2017 to manage all HSR related activities in India. Under its management, a High Speed Rail Training Institute is being developed with Japanese assistance in Vadodara, Gujarat. After the laying of the foundation stone for the Mumbai and Ahmedabad by the Prime Ministers of India and Japan in September 2017, work began on preparatory surveys along the route. The route consists of approximately elevated viaduct through 11 districts of Gujarat and four districts of Maharashtra, a deep-sea tunnel starting from BKC in Mumbai, and approximately of at-grade alignment near the other terminus at Sabarmati, near Ahmedabad. Most of the civil works for the elevated viaduct shall be handled by Indian companies, while the deep-sea tunnel at Mumbai will be handled by a Japanese consortium (along with other technical aspects, such as safety, electricals, communication systems, signaling, and rolling stock). BHEL of India and Kawasaki Heavy Industries of Japan have entered into a technology collaboration agreement to build and assemble the rolling stock (of E5 series vintage) in India. Other potential joint ventures are being explored under the patronage of NHSRC. The line is expected to operational by 2023.

Japan will provide Shinkansen technology for a high-speed rail link between Bangkok and the northern city of Chiang Mai under an agreement reached with Thailand on 27 May 2015. Total project costs are estimated in excess of 1 trillion yen ($8.1 billion). Several hurdles remain, however, including securing the funding. If the project is realized, it would mark the fifth time Shinkansen technology has been exported.

A private organisation dedicated in aiding the Australian Government in delivering high speed rail: Consolidated Land and Rail Australia has considered purchasing Shinkansen technology or SC Maglev rolling stock for a potential Melbourne-Canberra-Sydney-Brisbane line. A business case has been prepared for the government by Infrastructure Australia, and is awaiting confirmation of the project within the next federal budget release in 2018.

The U.S. Federal Railroad Administration is in talks with a number of countries with high-speed rail, notably Japan, France and Spain. On 16 May 2009, FRA Deputy Chief Karen Rae expressed hope that Japan would offer its technical expertise to Canada and the United States. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood indicated interest in test riding the Japanese Shinkansen in 2009.

On 1 June 2009, JR Central Chairman, Yoshiyuki Kasai, announced plans to export both the N700 Series Shinkansen high-speed train system and the SCMaglev to international export markets, including the United States and Canada.

Japan is promoting its Shinkansen technology to the Government of Brazil for use on the planned high-speed rail set to link Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Campinas. On 14 November 2008, Japanese Prime Minister Tarō Asō and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva talked about this rail project. President Lula asked a consortium of Japanese companies to participate in the bidding process. Prime Minister Aso concurred on the bilateral cooperation to improve rail infrastructure in Brazil, including the Rio–São Paulo–Campinas high-speed rail line. The Japanese consortium includes the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Mitsui & Co., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Toshiba.

Vietnam Railways was considering the use of Shinkansen technology for high-speed rail between the capital Hanoi and the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, citing an interview with Chief Executive Officer Nguyen Huu Bang. The Vietnamese government had already given basic approval for the Shinkansen system, although it still requires financing and formal consent from the prime minister. Vietnam rejected a funding proposal in 2010, so funding for the $56 billion project is uncertain. Hanoi was exploring additional Japanese funding Official Development Assistance as well as funds from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The line would replace the current colonial-era rail line. Vietnam hopes to launch high-speed trains by 2020 and plans to start by building three sections, including a 90-kilometre stretch between the central coastal cities of Da Nang and Huế, seen as potentially most profitable. Vietnam Railways had sent engineers to Central Japan Railway Company for technical training.


Where is Sang Min Leo Whang from?

Sang Min Leo Whang (November 10, 1962 - ) is a South Korean psychologist, author, and popular political commentator. His has empirically investigated "the Korean Peoples' identity & their mass-psychology" by connecting it to a variety of issues such as self, online world identity, consumption behavior, love & relationships, power desire and political decision making. He has mainly researched the different psychological types of people and how the human mind works in on and offline settings. His most well-known projects are WPI (Whang's Personality Inventory), research on the identities of online game players, and research on politicians' public images. Whang has been a professor at Sejong University from 1994-1997 and at Yonsei University from 1994-2016. In January 2016, he was dismissed from his position as a tenured professor at Yonsei University, by excuse of violating an ethical rule, 'having a job outside of professorship without the permission of the university president.' There is controversy and speculation surrounding his dismissal. The unusual dismissal of a tenured professor from his position was a retaliatory decision made because of Whang's criticism against Geun-hye Park, the 11th President of South Korea. She was later impeached and dismissed from the presidency. Whang's dismissal was planned and executed by the late president of Yonsei University, Gap Young Cheung who denied his involvement of this case as a president of university. The late president Gap Young Cheung had a strong reputation that he had wished to hold a government or Blue House position during Ms. Park's presidency. After the impeachment of Ms. Park, Cheung retired from the university and remained as an honorary professor. Whang's dismissal is appreciated as an example of an evidence of latent oppression on academia by power. Dr. Whang currently runs a podcast "WhangShimSo", where he provides free consultations on personal and career conflicts, and commentates on the diverse social issues in Korean Society.

Sang-Min Whang

He was born as a second child in the town of Jinhae, and lived there until he was 9 years old when his parents decided to move to the bigger city of Pusan for the opportunity to better educate their children. He has said the thought “I need to do well academically in ordered to be treated like a person” was a motivating factor in his youth to study hard. In an interview with "Chosun Ilbo", he recalled “Once I received grades that put me in 25th place in class and the kids who used to ask me questions during recess stopped asking me any questions. They would not even reply when I said something. What was even more surprising was that kids who were known to be physically dominant in the class started bothering me. It was strange. So I came in 2nd place in class on the next test. The teacher told me to stop playing with grades. And the other kids treated me normally again. This led me to think that in Korean society I need to do well academically in order to be treated properly as a person even before having any idea of what I really want to do.”

In the spring of 1981, Whang was admitted into Seoul National University's Social Sciences department. He himself has said it was pure coincidence that he came to major in Psychology. He initially went to the Social Sciences department in order to become a diplomat, but started to rethink his path after spending his first year of college drinking. It was overwhelming for him to consider majoring in Sociology only to be living in and out of jail afterwards due to the political oppression at the time. He did not want to live as a person who had to tout himself for someone or something. He chose psychology because he thought he could quietly study human behavior in a lab instead of having to go on expeditions into remote areas if he had chosen anthropology. In his second-year of college, he was selected as a scholarship recipient of The Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies and received 50,000 won ($50) per month, an event from which he gained hope and confidence to study abroad and pursue the path of a scholar, which he used to assume would be difficult. He was determined to go to America and become B.F. Skinner's student after reading «Walden II».

After receiving his BA in psychology in 1985, Sang Min Whang continued his studies at East Graduate School under professor Bong Yeon Suh's guidance. And in September 1986, he received a scholarship from The Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies to study Social Cognitive Development under Sheldon White's guidance in Harvard University's psychology doctorate program.

The question that continues to be repeated in Sang Min Whang's work since his graduate school days can be summarized as follows: “How are peoples’ minds living in a particular society or culture expressed in different ways for each individual?” His doctoral dissertation «The Organization of Everyday Places and their Dimensional Features: The Priming Effect of Dimensions on the Congruence of Place and Behavior» explored what kind of conceptions people had of everyday places, how the psychological meaning people attribute to places can be measured, and whether the measured results came from absolute characteristics of places or were results of peoples’ responses to places. In this study, he employed non-parametric statistical analysis, which unlike parametric statistical analysis that presumes a few set patterns exist, uses data to find an unknown pattern.

Since his postdoctoral fellowship, Sang Min Whang focused on the “human mind that operates in the Internet.” Under the guidance of Rob Kling at University of California, Irvine, he started research on the mind in the PC network environment and was a pioneer in early research on the virtual world. He accurately predicted that shopping and other real life activities will occur over the Internet and classified the characteristics of the type of person who first finds new electronic products and the characteristics of the consumer that spreads the use of new electronic products. (Refer to «Digital Freaks Decide Future Consumption»)

In his life as a researcher, Sang Min Whang delved into the subject of the “self,” especially “identification and respect for an individual’s disposition” based on the study of “Korean Peoples’ Identity.” In particular, he researched the relationship between “the self oneself perceives” and “the self others perceive,” or the “real self” and the “ideal self” Koreans experience and build in various aspects by connecting it to specific fields in education, development, politics, marketing, etc. He especially asserts that instead of the medical model that defines a student or a child's particular behavior as a “problem” and tries to solve it, the “developmental perspective,” which helps a student or a child understand herself by diagnosing and understanding each individual's character and the meaning each individual attributes to her actions, needs to be applied to education and psychotherapy.

He rejected mainstream psychology that looks for the “average” among people and tried to define the different individual characteristics expressed in a cultural or societal setting and measure these “unknown concepts” using MDS (Multidimensional Scaling). However, he started to feel there was a fundamental limitation to his research when it could find factors showing quantitative differences exist among individuals, but could not find each individual's characteristic that has its own attributes manifest in different ways from each other, and later used the Q Methodology to overcome this.

1) Q Methodology Development
In order to find a method that can investigate the characteristics of each individual living in a sociocultural environment instead of assuming an absolute and immutable attribute, Sang Min Whang organized a seminar called “What is Research Methodology?” with his students after starting his post in Yonsei University. One of the people invited to this seminar was Heung Gyu Kim, a former professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, who introduced Q Methodology to Whang. Afterwards, Whang studied the different thoughts people had from each other on various topics such as “Internet Psychology,” “Future Electronic Products,” etc. According to Sang Min Whang, Q Methodology makes it possible to do a quantum-mechanical interpretation of the mind unlike the existing factor analysis that was being used in psychology. That is, psychology based on the existing R-technique factor analysis defines each factor as an absolute characteristic that everyone has and only differs in the extent, while Q Methodology made it possible to deduce how each factor comes together differently and manifests in different ways according to each individual in different environments. It applied the fact that like how the subject can be conscious of the observer and decide on its movements and change, an individual can be aware of her environment and her own characteristics to manifest them (Refer to Q Workshop Manual). Afterwards, Sang Min Whang felt the limitation of interpreting each factor deduced from Q Methodology analysis as one characteristic according to the traditional analysis method. This was because he thought there was a need to separate the positive, easily shown disposition and the negative or hidden disposition that both appear within a single factor instead of abstractly lumping them together. In order to overcome this limitation, he divided the statements arranged according to the weight attributed to each statement into high, middle, and low and interpreted them as each different characteristics drawn from one factor. Afterwards, the middle-ranked statement was excluded because it could not reveal a clear disposition about the relevant factor and one factor was interpreted by being divided into two extreme dispositions shown by the highest-ranked statement and lowest-ranked statement. This is the principle of “extremes meet” being applied to Q Methodology and by interpreting one factor into two extreme dispositions, not only was it clearer how each disposition shows itself in a studied society and but it also became possible to show each characteristics’ interaction with one another. In addition, by dividing one factor into two extremes, it was possible to find out in Q Methodology research that proceeds with a comparatively small number of participants not only the disposition that is easily admitted by people or accepted in a societal situation (mainstream), but also the characteristic people are reluctant to show or only a minority of people have (non-mainstream). This new interpretative method based on Q Methodology is found in a number of Sang Min Whang's research.
2) Research on Koreans’ Psychology, “How to define and measure Korean peoples’ personalities?”

«WPI (Whang’s Personality Inventory)»

Sang Min Whang thought there needs to be a tool differentiated from the western psychology tests to measure “Koreans’ psychology” because Asians and Westerners define and think about “the self” in different ways. In the field of personality study, the Big 5 Theory of Personality (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) was already known to exist through Costa & McCrae and others’ research. However, Sang Min Whang thought these five factors would combine and manifest in different ways depending on the sociocultural environment and an individual's experience and beliefs. According to the metaphor he uses frequently, it is important to know the fact that “when making bread, the ingredients you need are ‘flour,’ ‘eggs,’ ‘milk,’ ‘yeast,’ and ‘butter.’ But the bread is not the ingredient. It only becomes bread when you mix the ingredients together to make the dough, proof it, put it in the oven, and bake it. Likewise, a persons’ mind becomes known not by the score from individual psychological traits or factors, but only after going through a larger frame that can look at those comprehensively.” («Reading the Mind (2016), 325p»
He was able to classify two dimensional types, the self that yourself sees (I), and the self that others see (Me) based on Q Methodology and after constructing many statements indicating Koreans’ emotion, lifestyle, and behavior pattern based on the Big 5 Theory of Personality. The way Koreans define themselves have been differentiated into 5 types: (I) Realist, Romantist, Humanist, Idealist, and Agent, and the way they define themselves using others as a medium (Me) was differentiated into these 5 types: Relation, Trust, Manual, Self, and Culture. His findings empirically proved how William James’ theory that the “self” is a combination of “the self that yourself thinks of (I)” and “the self that others see (Me)” manifests itself in a specific sociocultural setting and WPI (Whang's Personality Inventory) has been organized as a personality test that is being used in counseling and education.

WPI's 5 Types
3) Koreans’ Desires and ‘The Relationship between image and true self’

In «The President and Louis Vuitton», Sang Min Whang thought (luxury good) consumption and elections clearly showed how Koreans’ dress up their desires instead of saying what they want, thinking that if they choose the vaguely “good thing,” it will produce the results they want. When you make a decision to dress up your desire without being able to distinguish between “what you really want” and “what you are saying you want,” you feel “duped” and cannot be satisfied even after spending money. On the other hand, he suggested “the mind’s MRI,” a development from Q Methodology, for suppliers to use as a method to diagnose the consumer's hidden desire and the desire they freely talk of in a societal setting.

In May 2015, Sang Min Whang researched the types of image the public has about the then President Geun Hye Park using Q Methodology and published his findings in the monthly magazine "Shin Dong Ah" with the title “Foolish Ruler> Face Madame >Our VIP.” According to Whang’s research, people perceived Ms. Park mainly as a “puppet.” The “puppet” image the majority of people had of Ms. Park was divided into more detailed types: foolish ruler, our VIP, and face Madame. The study simultaneously found the public expected a president with the image of a “leading hero” as an alternative to Park. This meant the public already knew through her image that Park is incompetent and, at the same time, only a sort of “ceremonious figure” with someone else calling the shots. She was being perceived as a leader that did not have the ability to govern a nation.

After publishing his “President Geun Hye Park Image” research in "Shin Dong Ah" magazine, Sang Min Whang was sent to Yonsei University's disciplinary committee for “violation of prohibition on holding a job outside of professorship and violation of prohibition on engaging in commercial activity” and the former Yonsei University president, Gap Young Cheung, who was being mentioned as a potential minister nominee in Geun Hye Park's regime, passed the dismissal motion on his last day in office on January 29, 2016. Yonsei University has claimed there is no relation between Sang Min Whang's research and the exclusionary disciplinary action and that he was removed because of “holding concurrent offices,” but through the Soon Sil Choi affair it was proven Sang Min Whang's research predicted the hidden commander's existence. The retaliatory decision to dismiss a tenured professor, along with Yoo Ra Chung's illicit admission incident, showed that universities lost academic autonomy and became an instrument of political power.

Professor Ho Geun Lee from Yonsei University, who agreed to an interview with "Dong-A Ilbo" newspaper, claimed that if Whang had only “violated the prohibition on holding a job outside of professorship and the prohibition on engaging in commercial activity” then he would not have been dismissed and implied that Whang was dismissed because he was negligent in carrying out his duties as a professor. Lee cited examples such as Whang's absence from meetings with professors, scheduling all of his courses to teach on one day during the week, and managing an outside research lab named Wisdom Center even though Whang did a lot of research. However, it was confirmed Sang Min Whang did not receive any salary or engage in any commercial activity for profit and only conducted research by accepting projects through Wisdom Center. In Korea and in the U.S., it is difficult for the excuse “holding another office outside of professorship” to be the grounds for dismissal because many professors in both countries establish their own research labs to work more freely on research or they hold offices at companies in related areas of study. Ultimately, according to Lee's interview, Yonsei University presented the reasons that Whang was “negligent” because he did not attend the professor meetings and fit all of his courses into one day to remove a tenured, full professor with satisfactory research performance. This kind of measure taken by Yonsei University is one of the examples of how people who satirized Geun Hye Park were oppressed under the regime.

Gap Young Cheung, who removed Sang Min Whang from Yonsei University, was one of the figures being mentioned as a nominee for the first chief of staff or the minister of economy under Geun Hye Park's regime, but he unable to take a government post. Afterwards, he tried for reappointment of Yonsei University's president, but failed after “being ranked as the lowest among potential candidates on performance and qualifications in an opinion gathering session by Yonsei University faculty.” After the next term (18th) president of Yonsei University was decided to be Yong Hak Kim, the dismissal procedure for Whang progressed quickly. Gap Young Cheung signed the dismissal resolution on his last day of his president term and announced it is “chance” that the two dates coincide. Some analyze Gap Young Cheung's removal of Sang Min Whang, who continued to maintain a critical tone of Geun Hye Park's regime on a daily basis, as a move Cheung made to become appointed to public office under Geun Hye Park's regime. However, Gap Young Cheung claimed in an interview with the press that he “did not know” about Sang Min Hwang's dismissal from Yonsei University's professorship and that he only followed the decision of the disciplinary committee even though he was Yonsei University's president when the dismissal process was in progress. These actions by Gap Young Cheung along with the illicit admission of Yoo Ra Chung into Ewha University is analyzed as a case of how university personnel have transformed into, not people who pursue learning, but rather agents of political power under Geun Hye Park's regime.

In other instances of abuse of power, it became known Geun Hye Park's regime not only made the conglomerate CJ group discontinue the Saturday Night Live television program that satirized Geun Hye Park, but also exerted pressure on CJ group's human resources to influence management position appointments within the company. This example shows thorough vindictive punishment was carried out against people who revealed the true nature of Geun Hye Park's regime by applying “charges that do not have anything to do with the regime.” Like how in the dynasty era the suspicion of “having taken part in a conspiracy” was cast on everyone to cause a “purge” to happen and was used as an excuse to punish people, in Geun Hye Park's regime where she was called the “queen” by the masses, the suspicion of “having engaged in profit-seeking activity” that could easily incur hatred among people was used to discipline a company that could legitimately engage in profit-seeking activity and discipline a professor who had the right to freely research.

The attempt to discipline Sang Min Whang in 2015 was not the first time. In 2014, he was sent to the disciplinary action committee for “lack of research production and negligence in teaching students,” but the charge fell apart after it was revealed not to be true. This is because in 2014 when Sang Min Whang was sent to the disciplinary action committee, he did 5 presentations in international and domestic academic societies and published 1 dissertation and the book «The Person that is me». Also, he was on the editing staff for the Journal of Human Subjectivity and was editor-in-chief of the Korean Society for the Study of Human Subjectivity. In the following year of 2015, he published «The New Consumer Psychology: Scanning buying behavior with MRI of the Mind» through Routledge, America's publishing company specializing in social sciences. In addition, when the genital scandal arose, Sung Joo Kim who was the co-chair of the Presidential Campaign Committee for "Saenuri" party, visited Yonsei University demanding Sang Min Whang's resignation from professorship and revealed that she was promised disciplinary action by Yonsei University. It was brought up that Sung Joo Kim may be a member of the hidden power organization called “eight fairies” related to the Soon Sil Choi scandal, but she denied the allegation.

Professor Chang Yong Kim, who asserts that he also experienced the dangers of disadvantages caused by criticizing the regime, criticized Yonsei University's actions against Whang and warned against the current danger the state of social sciences is in Korea and scholars’ freedom becoming limited by saying as follows:“He was easily terminated by the so-called “genital” comment even though he was a full professor who was guaranteed retirement (tenure). If you look at it, what is wrong with this comment? It was nothing more than an ordinary opinion, not degradation nor defamation. After being terminated, professor Whang appeared on a TV program and claimed, “I became an object of hatred after defining Geun Hye Park as a ‘foolish ruler’ and even if there was pressure to terminate me from the Blue House because of this, the faculty council and university president should have stepped forward acting as a shield saying it [my comment] is within academic domain. This is evidence that universities have become trash…”Even if a college professor is guaranteed retirement, he still has to assume risk when practicing the “freedom of expression” guaranteed by the constitution against political authority. It is especially not easy to raise your voice of criticism against a living authority figure such as a president or a minister.… The constitutionally guaranteed “freedom of expression,” “freedom of the press, “academic freedom” are being threatened and even terminated or removed by thoughtless people. When even the professorship is shaken by the outside wind, the freedom of expression in this country shrinks and praises like “it is sunny when the president appears” and sugar-coated reports become rampant in the media.As long as the president, who does not want to hear anything unpleasant to the ear and only wants to hear praise and glorification, and the people close to her do not change, then the pundit class does not speak out when the constitution is threatened and specifically when freedom of expression has been violated.”Sang Min Whang's research that became grounds for termination was “An Investigation into the President’s Image” that started in 2014. It was shown the image the public has of the president can be divided into 8 types through this research. The following is the body of the research explanation that was published in "Shin Dong Ah".“To the public that perceives President Park as a ‘foolish ruler,’ she is like “a king that tries to privatize the country.” Above all, she is an “incompetent and lazy” leader. She is a person who does not take responsibility and only has the desire for power. She cannot tolerate a competent subordinate and is strongly likely to engage in random behavior in order to maintain power. So the public is anxious and fearful the foolish ruler may do something a senseless child might do. Above all, to a foolish ruler, the people and the country is a means to satisfy her desires. She likely regards ‘the country=power=me.’ Even with this kind of presidential image, she is a fine enough leader for those who want to maintain conservative power. She could even be a really needed leader if one’s gains or interests fit well together with the president. However, the people who see President Park in the image of the foolish ruler has the thought “the country has been left to someone who is incompetent and causes uneasiness with the possibility she may do something preposterous.” The public having this kind of image about the president does not, by any means, mean that “the president is this kind of person.” It just means some perceive the president as a foolish king.The more the public think the president is a foolish king, the more the image of the political leader they desperately want becomes the “great commander (strategist).” A great commander who torments and agonizes himself and at the same time tries to change society. He may more or less fall short in taking actual action or combat because he is a strategist, but the public is satisfied with a leader who provides direction to keep the people from feeling confused. It is the image of a leader who can tell us the tasks and crisis our society faces and can solve it together. This kind of image stands out more when the uncertainty of the current situation becomes greater.”This research was made into PCIC (President Candidate Image Checklist) that diagnoses what kind of wish, desire, and belief people have of a particular politician and is being utilized as material that analyzes the public image of tentative presidential candidates in current event programs.

Sang Min Whang appeared on the 219th episode of the television program “Gordian Knot” and discussed the phenomenon that Park, who was a presidential candidate at the time, was being advertised as the “first female president.” In the episode, he argued the public is delusional to expect a mother like aspect from candidate Park who was raised only as a princess and did not marry or experience becoming a mother. This is because in Korean society the life of a woman comes from having to perform a societal role, not from the genitals that are different from men. After this episode was aired, many in the press including "Kyunghyang Shinmun", "SBS", "Dailian", etc. released articles saying Whang remarked “Geun Hye Park is a woman only in her genitals” and there was hot debate on the internet on “how a professor could say something like ‘a woman only in her genitals?’” As a result, the debate on candidate Park’s qualifications and tendencies as a leader moved onto value assessment and criticism on a remark made by a peculiar professor, and the question “is it possible for the people to expect candidate Park to demonstrate the role and capability of a woman in Korean society?” was not brought up again. However, in the actual recording of Gordian Knot, the sensational line “Candidate Park is a woman only in her genitals” was not found and there was only a comment ‘that (the claim by anchor Jong Jin Park that at-the-time candidate Geun-hye Park also has femininity) is an issue of genitals (not) acting in the role of a woman…’

Sung Joo Kim, who was the co-chair of the presidential campaign committee of "Saenuri" party at the time, visited Yonsei University in protest and demanded Whang's resignation from professorship in relation to this incident and appeared on Hyun Jung Kim's news show and testified that she received a promise from Yonsei University to send Sang Min Whang to the disciplinary action committee. Sung Joo Kim's comment that “Yonsei University promised sending Sang Min Whang to the disciplinary action committee” as she demanded Whang's resignation shows Yonsei University's decision to terminate Whang is not unrelated to the Geun Hye Park regime.

Sang Min Whang said “[I] did not [use the word “genitals” to] belittle women as a whole but used [the word] as an academic term to differentiate between societal role and biological difference,” but Sung Joo Kim retorted, “his action is one of not being able to distinguish things you should say and things you should not say.” On this, Sang Min Whang analyzed if Sung Joo Kim “is idolizing candidate Park as a divine being and not as a person then it shows the state of mind as is that considers the word “genitals” as profane and blasphemous.”[Gordian Knot Episode 219 relevant section recording (Sang Min Whang / ●: Jong Jin Park)]Whang: When we say a woman is less corrupt than a man, in that instance is the difference between a woman and a man a difference in genitals or are we talking about a difference in how they live?
Whang: Not long ago a person who was an assemblywoman from "Saenuri" party [said] to a small business CEO…
Whang: There was no instance of taking a bribe because none was given. If it was given, it would have been taken.
Whang: But do you know where the difference comes from when we say woman or man?
Whang: That is an excellent point. In Korean society living as a woman, and a moment ago being able to be less corrupt and also being sacred because of being a woman, when we say that what does that woman mean? Does it mean different genitals between a man and a woman or a difference in roles?
Whang: It is a difference in roles, right? For example, what is one of the more representative roles?
Whang; Mother. Being a mother means having given birth to children, right? In Korean society living as a woman does not mean being born with genitals different from man, but it means [a difference in] role, when does that most representative thing about that role appear?
Whang: And then raising children. Isn’t being a woman a phenomenon that happens because of it? When looking at that we say that person is a woman. We don’t say she is a woman because her genitals are different from a man. But is candidate Geun Hye Park in that situation? Is she in a category that coincides with that woman or no? Did candidate Geun Hye Park get married? Did she give birth to children? Did she raise children?
Whang: So that is an issue of genitals as a woman what role…
Whang: So we speak of that person as a princess and it is right to see her as a queen who came out to become president. Why then all of a sudden does [her being a] woman come up? Even if I am a man, from women’s perspective with many women… I… Korean women are much more capable than men.

Sang Min Whang who was a regular on criticized colleges’ preferential treatment of its sports stars on May 22, 2012.When did Yuna Kim go to college? Do you go practice teaching as you graduate high school? When we say diligence it means practicing an undertaking consistently well. It is true athlete Kim (Yuna Kim) is busy but it does not mean she practiced teaching diligently. If Yuna Kim goes to teaching practice, does it mean she fulfilled all the prerequisites to become a student-teacher by going to class assiduously for 4 years in college and received grades for completing courses? Yuna Kim trains mainly abroad for personal or national work and goes around abroad. Is Korea University a school that lets one graduate with no classes required? We provide a lot of special benefits for sports stars exempting them from military service and paying them a lot of money. Either Yuna Kim’s parents or the school is teaching athlete Kim, who is trying to become a teacher, the wrong way. Yuna Kim receiving a certificate as if she is collecting them may be thought of as her just showing her face and receiving a certificate from a regular student-teacher’s position. The college is using stars like Kim for marketing in order to make their name known among the public. A college has given up being a college and stooped to the level of gaining publicity like a regular corporation.”Unlike Sang Min Whang's intention to discuss “Korean universities’ utilizing students as a means for gaining publicity and the preferential treatment of elite sports athletes,” he became embroiled in the controversy of “fact checking Yuna Kim’s teaching practice.” A teacher from Yuna Kim's teaching practice site,, refuted in an interview on “Mi-hwa Kim’s Everybody” to “please check the fact that [Yuna Kim] is coming to school and diligently coming to practice teaching” and on June 6 Yuna Kim's management company, All That Sports, sued Sang Min Whang for slander saying “there are parts of what he said that are untrue that he spoke of as if it were true and because that damages the athlete’s honor we are taking legal measures.” However, they also left the possibility of dropping the lawsuit open by saying, “we can drop the suit at any time if professor Whang apologizes for the false information that was not checked.”

On the controversy surrounding his comments, Whang said “I think it is possible to specially grant college admission to any number of (star athletes). But on whether the athletes receive a proper education while going to college, on whether colleges have a real interest in educating these students, right now they do not” and “they are only a means to gain publicity and the students grow up really as sports machines completely swayed by sports. And when that student graduates from college is he or she really a person at the intellectual level of a person who graduated from a 4-year university? And later when [that person] does a masters or doctorate program and even becomes a professor in that field, we already saw through athlete Dae Sung Moon’s case how the dissertation is not written but copied from other sources” and “we discussed this issue from the perspective of psychological reasoning, from the side of let’s think about this aspect, but if [Yuna Kim] thought of this as talking about her and sues then who in Korea would raise questions about a problem or issue that makes us frustrated?” Whang expressed his frustrations for having been weirdly attacked for trying to raise an educational issue. He did not back down from his opinion saying, “I just called it as I saw it,” but apologized for the discomfort Yuna Kim may have felt being taken as an example and stepped down from the radio program “.”

Afterwards, Yuna Kim's side dropped the suit against Sang Min Whang saying “we do not want to be caught up in this anymore.” However, the possibility was mentioned that this decision was made conscious of the potential controversy that may rise when the fact comes out that Yuna Kim cannot normally become a student teacher because she did not attend almost all of the undergraduate classes at Korea University if the defamation lawsuit progressed and the problem of “whether [Yuna Kim] went to teaching practice diligently” and “whether [Kim] has the qualifications to practice teaching” had to be proven. Some compared Yuna Kim with ex-Tae Kwon Do athlete Dae Sung Moon's example and the opinions “raising national prestige itself does not give [star athletes] the right to skip school” and “this needs to be a starting point to face the inconvenient truth that we cannot foster ‘studying athletes’” were raised.

At the end of 2016, the occurrence of “Geun Hye Park–Soon Sil Choi Gate” shed new light on Sang Min Whang's dismissal from Yonsei University in the press and in politics. He also took this time to reset his own values, which can be known from his words in the following: “If I could do what was enjoyable to me then I was not going to be concerned with anything else and tried hard to be indifferent and lived thinking “a professor’s duty is only to do research.” I tried to live detached from the power struggle as an aloof scholar who would occasionally observe it from afar and provide advice. But in Korea, after knowing the truth that I cannot do the work I enjoy and do well at all outside of its influence… I realized the truth that I was terminated because my desire to stay as an aloof scholar was not as clear compared to those who tried to gain power who had very clear desires and was thorough in their pursuit of it. So I thought I should no longer stay as an observer… The people were also deceived by Lee-Myung-Park-Geun-Hye because they did not face what they want and did not make it clear enough.” After diagnosing the Korean peoples’ mind as being in “a state of slavery” in relation to the “Geun Hye Park–Soon Sil Choi Gate,” Whang spoke out more proactively and clearly on his opinions in politics in the press and on his podcast after his dismissal, and is leading “the Korean Peoples’ Psychological Independence Movement” with the public through the podcast «"Whangshimso"».