Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder (CDU) praised the service of Deutsche Bahn during a trip to Japan. “We are definitely better when it comes to service, we don’t need to hide,” Schnieder told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) while riding the Shinkansen. The minister was referring primarily to the onboard bistro in German ICE trains, which is absent in Japanese high-speed trains.
But a FAZ author who lived in Japan for more than ten years as a correspondent paints a very different picture in the article. Bottom line: Schnieder is wrong. Deutsche Bahn lags “miles behind” Japan in terms of service and quality. The author points to the core task of a railway: getting passengers to their destination on time. In all those years, he never experienced a delay of more than ten minutes in Japan – most trains arrived within two to three minutes of the scheduled time.
Onboard bistro as a cultural misunderstanding
Schnieder’s praise of the German onboard bistro shows a “major cultural misunderstanding,” the author writes. In Japan, it is customary to buy drinks and food at the station before the journey. Numerous private vendors offer freshly prepared bento boxes there – small to large containers with several dishes, including local and seasonal specialties. Especially at major stations, the selection is overwhelming. The Japanese even have a word for it: Ekiben, a combination of station and bento.
The author emphasizes that neither he nor his Japanese friends ever saw the lack of an onboard bistro as a drawback. The delicacies of Ekiben are clearly preferable to the reheated and overpriced convenience products of a German onboard bistro. The apparent advantage of the bistro pales in comparison – what matters is the overall package, and Deutsche Bahn has a huge amount of catching up to do there.
Toilets and punctuality as weak points
The author cites further examples: He never experienced toilets in Japanese trains being out of order or dirty. In Germany, this happens repeatedly. The punctuality of Shinkansen trains is also unmatched – an area where Deutsche Bahn has been struggling for years. Schnieder himself is aware that the railway needs to catch up on punctuality.
The article shows that the service comparison between Deutsche Bahn and Japanese trains is more complex than Schnieder’s statement suggests. While the onboard bistro is a unique German feature, Japanese trains convince with punctuality, cleanliness, and a well-thought-out culinary offering at the station. The reform debate in Germany suffers from a certain degree of denial of reality, the author says: people cling to minor details and neglect the big picture.
EuroPulse reported on May 17, 2026, about the growing pressure on Transport Minister Schnieder in connection with
Source: www.faz.net
