TOKYO -- As Japan's rail companies take small steps to help the logistics industry soften an expected labor crunch and burn less fossil fuel, it is becoming clear that trains face big challenges in trying to do the job of trucks.
Japan Freight Railway (JR Freight) and the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, better known as Zen-Noh, in November began regular runs of a long-distance rice freight train. On weekends, a train carries rice from northern Japan, including the well-known rice-producing region of Tohoku, to western Japan.
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