Shift in Public Transport Policy with Deregulation of Japanese Bus Industry : A Case of the Municipal Bus Services Privatization in Gifu city

Abstract

Since 1980's, privatization policy has been implemented in Japan to promote fiscal efficiency. In consideration of current situation, this paper takes up the local bus services that deregulation has been done in February, 2002, and, considers how municipality responses to the deregulation and takes an attitude toward the public transport policy. As a case, the private acquisition of public bus of Gifu City from 2003 has been picked up. First, the networks of bus lines, the operation frequency and the fare as indexes of the bus operation have been compared before and after deregulation. As a result, the deterioration of the service in the transferred bus lines had hardly occurred. Meanwhile, operating expenditure and receipt had substantially improved. As a reason why such results come out, the measures such as contract clauses with a private enterprise and new subsidy system for unprofitable lines that Gifu city originally formulated worked effectively. In addition, like Omnibus town project and route restructuring planning, Gifu City sets forth its own plans to improve public transportation use, especially bus services, since 2002. In conclusion, with a privatization as a turning point, Gifu city fixes public transport in the center of transport system of the city and shifts its own functions from as an "operator"to an "supervisor" of the public transportations.