The Class EF65 (EF65形) is a DC electrified six-axle (Bo'-Bo'-Bo') passenger-oriented locomotive class. Originally identified as the DF60 diesel-electric locomotive class exported from the USA as the EMD E9NG, all members of the class would end up being rebuilt en masse into electric locomotives and the diesel engines would be sold for other purposes. As of 1 April 2016, 29 EF65-0 locomotives have been identified as still in service today, with another 25 examples of the EF65-500 variety and 28 more examples of the EF65-1000 variety. Their top speed is 110 km/h.
The DF60s were a class of 500 diesel-electric locomotives exported from the USA. These types of locomotives weren't very popular in Japan and due to this issue, along with a variety of others, such as the cost of importing replacement engines and bogies from the USA, they would end up being converted into fully electric locomotives. Not much is known about these predecessors. As these locomotives share a similarity with the EF55 locomotives due to their shell being streamlined on one end, they are referred to as "sons of the EF55".
The locomotives would perform as well as their descendants, the freight-oriented EF66s, and they would sometimes switch jobs when a unit was unavailable for their wanted service; both of these engines would perform as well as the other even though they weren't made specifically for that job.
When the Shinkansen service was greenlit, many express services and sleeper services would be gradually displaced, and then replaced themselves by Shinkansen lines. This also meant that many EF65s were either retired or forced to work on branch lines, charter services, or freight lines. Yet, there were still a few holdouts where citizens refused to let a whole express service be replaced, let alone part of it. Thus, a few services would be saved from the chopping block, thus equally saving a few EF65s.
Most EF65s still in service are either working freight services or charter services. One EF65, EF65-65, was allocated to serve in the Joyful Train JR East Millenia for twenty years until its eventual discontinuation in 2020.