The fastest Shinkansen train service running on Japan’s Tokaido and Sanyo lines is Nozomi.
Nozomi is operated by Central Japan Railway Company and West Japan Railway Company. It began Shinkansen service in 1992 and was created as a faster, limited-stop alternative to the existing Hikari and Kodama services.
Nozomi trains reach up to 285 km/h on the Tokaido Shinkansen and 300 km/h on the Sanyo Shinkansen. Their speed comes largely from skipping smaller stations: on the Tokaido route, they primarily stop at Shinagawa, Shin-Yokohama, Nagoya, and Kyoto between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka.
A common mix-up is choosing Hikari, which is also a limited-stop service, or Kodama, which stops at every station. Nozomi is the express service among the three, although Japan Rail Pass users generally need an additional ticket or supplement to ride it.