Maglev trains, as the name suggests, levitate on powerful magnetic fields above the tracks. The lack of friction means they can reach extremely high speeds.
Rather astonishingly for anyone used to most Western trains, the Japanese technology has been in the pipeline since the 1960s, with a major publically viewable 20km test track to the west of Tokyo since 1997.
The top speed reached so far at the Yamanashi test facility is 581kph (361mph). If that’s hard to picture, imagine a commercial jet aircraft flying past at full throttle at ground level – that’s in the same ballpark.