Safety is the biggest characteristic of the shinkansen. It has maintained an impeccable record with zero fatalities in its 50 years of operation.

Heh, they'll prob let this one slip through their hands too . . . Just like the submarine deal.

I don't think it's the actual appliances but the Japanese people and the way they operate as one that ensures product quality. A Japanese train in Malayasia will be driven, operated, and governed by Malaysian people I imagine. So they will have their own pros and cons to think of.

The Indonesian HSR is dead in the water and will never make the marked schedule and chances of it being cancelled.

The Shinkasen will always remain as the showcase for Japanese domestic passenger transport. All they need to do is to concentrate more on improving local access to its existing infrastructure. They have their technical side mastered so any limit to development in the future would probably be economic and environmental.