User:Tangotango/WikiProject Trains in Japan

'WikiProject Trains in Japan is already active. Please do not modify this page, as it is kept only for historical interest.'

This is a proposal to create WikiProject Trains in Japan, a WikiProject specializing in Rail transport in Japan.

Background
There are currently over 500 articles about this subject (see Category:Rail transport in Japan), many of them translated from the Japanese version (see Category:日本の鉄道).

Some articles are in states of bad disrepair, with awkward grammar, formatting and spelling. A WikiProject would help highlight these problems, and would also improve the visibility of articles about trains in Japan.

Railway culture is a Big Thing in Japan, with lots of enthusiasts and more railway-related magazines than you can shake a stick at. In particular, the chikan phenomenon, coupled with the introduction of women-only cars (女性専用車両, jyosei senyō sharyō), is highly controversial and deserves more coverage worldwide. By creating a WikiProject to encompass this field of Japanese culture, more people will be able to understand Japan as a whole.

Aims
Aims will be to:
 * Provide a centralized discussion point for articles about railways in Japan
 * Standardize the articles somewhat (e.g. a standard way of listing adjacent stations in station articles, providing templates and infoboxes)
 * Provide information that's useful for both railway enthusiasts and visitors to Japan
 * Create an interesting portal
 * And of course... improve as many Japanese railway articles to featured status

The WikiProject
WikiProject Trains in Japan may be a descendant WikiProject of the following existing projects:
 * WikiProject Trains
 * WikiProject Japan

Why a separate WikiProject is required
Although the above two projects can provide a lot of support for the articles in question, the subject matter requires a little of both - the willingness to write about railways, and a certain understanding of Japan and the Japanese language (although that's not required, of course).

That's why this project has been proposed to be a descendant of the two established ones above.

Interwiki Relations
Since these articles are about Japan, we should strive to increase relations with the Japanese Wikipedia. We could improve the quality of the articles here by inviting English-speaking users from the Japanese Wikipedia, and translating articles.

Finally
If you are interested, please be sure to voice your support in the appropriate section of this page! Thank you.

If you aren't, thank you anyway for reading this proposal.