HOKKAIDO Railway Company is using a range of bearings developed by NSK for its new fleet of H5 trains that will be used Hokkaido Shinkansen between Shin-Aomori and Sapporo, which is due to open in March 2016. NSK's oil bath, double-row cylindrical roller bearings have been chosen for use on the axles. NSK says the bearings can facilitate high-speed rotation without generating much heat, which makes these components ideally suited to 320km/h operation and a long service life. In addition ceramic-coated insulated bearings have been adopted for the main traction motors, while the bearings for the drive units feature high-strength cages that have been subjected to nitriding treatment to enhance shock resistance. NSK has supplied bearings to all variants of Japan's Shinkansen rolling stock since the 0 Series was launched in 1964.