The private railway and JR East provide major passenger rail transit service in Tokyo metropolitan area. The private railway companies adopted a “railway and real estate” market-oriented construction and operation mode， while Japanese National Railway made a strategic transition followed by a market-oriented reform to serve Tokyo metropolitan area. The development process has shown that the emphasis on economic benefits and full market competition are fundamental for the high-quality development of suburban railway network in Tokyo metropolitan area. The relevant experiences include letting general-speed railways gradually play a major role in providing metropolitan commuting service， the construction of rail loop lines with multiple tracks in the main corridor， and giving full play to the advantage of interconnectivity of networked railway and maintaining unified standards. At present， it is of necessity and urgency to construct suburban railway network in metropolitan areas in China with the existing national railway resources. Central government’s role should be emphasized in guiding the strategic transition of China Railway in the short term. In the long term， it is prominent to facilitate the market-oriented reform for China Railway， and meanwhile， to reform the land use policy and establish a productive interaction between railway construction and urban development so as to achieve high-quality development of China’s suburban railway system.