Ooh, that link to the Japanese blog doesn't work (sans VPN) from here in China, at least where I am. Now I'm madly curious....
I will continue to follow this issue with interest, as when the start of service gets delayed beyond June and the journey time BJ-SH ends up being 4.5-5.0 hours...as I predicted...I will definitely return to this FT thread and say "I told you so."