2017 Volume 69 Issue 2 Pages 91-103
This paper attempts to examine the effects of municipalities’ management relationships with respect to inter-prefecture buses in the mountainous areas of the Chubu-Region. An analysis, focusing on the relationships and conflicts between local municipalities.
After the 1980’s, against a background of declining demand, extension of highway routes and the national government’s administrative and financial reform, we have the added burden of local municipalities’ interests in the continuation of loss making routes for the benefit of residents.
Municipalities located on prefectural borders are faced with the added burden of the prefectural governments’ reluctance and or refusal to become involved in the coordination of inter-prefecture bus services. This results in the local municipalities having the freedom to organize bus services, but also having to bear full responsibility for the said routes.
So, the relationship of financial burden between the municipalities varies. Almost the relationship between core and periphery areas or the reorganization of bus services due to municipal merger has led to uneven financial burdens within the said areas. As a result peripheral municipalities bear more burdens. Because of their need to connect central urban areas they need the bus services more than central areas. And, in the mid-2000’s municipal mergers made enclaves within their territories.
Under the present management system of inter prefecture bus services running in the red, peripheral municipalities are at a great disadvantage due to structural problems. So, to keep the routes, we should take a broad, and consider the creation of bus services for the areas as a whole.
