Abstract
Japanese railway development and operation schemes have been based on the initiative of private sector operators, so they have been successful in large cities, but their limits have appeared. In local cities, management is difficult, service levels are low, and some lines have been abolished. In recent years, local governments have begun to implement vertical separation as a subsidy expansion measure, but the service level is insufficient. The idea of my doctoral dissertation, which I completed in 2005, is a Japanese version of a vertical separation method that balances public interest and management efficiency by utilizing a vibrant private railway operator without causing moral hazard. It is adopted as a framework for Act on Enhancement of Convenience of Urban Railways, etc. Law number: Act No. 41, which was enacted in 2005 as the only public privatization law for urban railways in Japan. In this paper, I deepened and rearranged the concept of my doctoral dissertation, and showed that it is extremely versatile for all railway development issues in metropolitan areas. On the other hand, it was also clarified that in Japan, there is a problem of incentive to use the system because it requires a paradigm shift. Next, I made clear that the idea of the doctoral dissertation could be applied to railway issues in local cities.
