Railway Nationalization Act (Japan)

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The Railway Nationalization Act ( Japanese 鉄 道 国有 法 , Tetsudō Kokuyū-hō ) is a law passed by the Japanese Reichstag in 1906 that enabled the state to nationalize major private railway companies by purchase . As a result, 17 companies were acquired within one year, which together operated 4525.4 km of railway lines. This enabled the state to triple the length of its own route network and private railways were limited to regional traffic for several decades. In order to be able to manage the numerous new routes more efficiently, the government created the Railway Authority in 1908, which later became the Railway Ministry .

Starting position

In 1872 the first railway line was opened on Japanese soil. For almost a decade, the construction of the railway remained exclusively a matter for the state, but progressed very slowly due to a lack of money and high inflation. Therefore, in 1881, the government allowed private railway companies to be established. The reforms of the financial system initiated by Matsukata Masayoshi led to an economic upswing from 1885, which in turn led to the establishment of numerous private railway companies. In 1887 the government issued an ordinance that stipulated uniform building standards. The state initially limited itself to railway construction in central Japan, in particular the Tōkaidō main line between Tokyo and Kobe , while the private sector was mainly active to the north and west of it.

Inoue Masaru , the director of the state railway authority, proposed the nationalization of the most important private railways for the first time in 1891, whereupon the government drafted a corresponding law. The following year, the Reichstag rejected the draft law, but approved a railway construction law that laid down binding routes that were to be built either by the state or by private individuals. This largely avoided competing routes. Due to a recession, private railway construction had suffered a massive setback in the meantime, but recovered again from 1893. Further draft laws for the nationalization of the railway failed in 1892, 1899 and 1900.

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/05, railways played a decisive role. Yet the Imperial Japanese Army and its political supporters were dissatisfied with their performance. They blamed a lack of coordination between state and private railways for the fact that the full potential had not been exploited. They also argued that a state railway would be better able to lower freight rates. They also saw nationalization as the best way to protect the railways from access by foreign investors. These views were controversial, especially since corresponding legislative measures would have been sufficient if the private railways had continued to exist. The opponents of nationalization were of the opinion that the numerous delays and inadequacies were not due to a rivalry between state and private railways, but rather the result of the fact that almost all routes were still single-track and thus overloaded due to the system.

decision

The army, which had gained enormous prestige after the war, was ultimately able to largely prevail with its arguments. In March 1906, the cabinet of Prime Minister Saionji Kimmochi presented a bill that provided for the nationalization of 32 private railway companies. The Shūgiin (House of Representatives) approved the bill on March 16. In contrast, the Kizokuin (House of Lords) changed the template at its meeting on March 27 and deleted 15 smaller companies from the list of companies to be taken over. On the same day, the House of Commons adopted the changes made and passed the law, albeit with violent protests from opponents who refused to vote. Foreign Minister Katō Takaaki , who was closely associated with the Mitsubishi - Zaibatsu , had already announced his resignation on March 3, in opposition to the law.

The law established the following formula for calculating the purchase price: the average of the net profit of all six-month periods from the first half of 1902 to the second half of 1905, multiplied by the total construction costs up to the time of the takeover, and again multiplied by 20. Thus, the purchase price was to a total of around 480 million yen .

consequences

Although the law allowed ten years to take over the 17 companies, the process ended up taking only a year and a half. The takeovers took place gradually from October 1, 1906 and were completed on October 1, 1907. The length of the state railways increased by 4525.4 km, their market share rose from under 50% to more than 90%. In addition to the previous 30,000 state employees, 48,000 additional employees were added within a short period of time. From then on, the influence of the private sector was limited to suburban traffic, trams and short local trains in rural areas. The former shareholders received government bonds as compensation , which they invested in the rapidly expanding heavy industry - a development desired by the government.

The state railway authority, which had previously only been an agency within the communications ministry, was converted in 1908 into an authority directly subordinate to the cabinet, the Naikaku Tetsudō-in (内閣 鉄 道 院, "Railway Office of the Cabinet"). Its first director Gotō Shimpei advocated the principle of a “big family”, whereupon the entire staff began to develop a feeling of unity. In 1909, the Railway Authority introduced a new, uniform series scheme, which replaced the schemes taken over from the predecessor companies. The Railway Accounting Act passed in the same year separated the railway accounting from the general state accounting. It thus granted the Railway Authority a certain degree of independence and ensured that the state did not cover any deficits with the surpluses generated from lucrative rail traffic. Instead, the surpluses flowed into the further expansion of the rail network.

Which originated from the Railway Office 1920 Ministry of Railways , which in the public again in 1949 Japanese National Railways passed. With the privatization of the state railway, the state withdrew from rail transport in 1987.

Overview of nationalizations

The railway companies were nationalized as follows:

date Railway company length Purchase price Locomotives Travel car Freight wagons
October 1, 1906 Hokkaidō Tankō Tetsudō 329.1 km ¥ 30,997,000 79 102 1,753
Kōbu Tetsudō 44.7 km 14,600,000 yen 13 62 266
November 1, 1906 Nippon Tetsudo 1385.3 km 142,495,000 yen 368 857 6,411
Gan'etsu Tetsudo 79.7 km ¥ 2,521,000 6th 23 112
December 1, 1906 San'yō Tetsudō 667.7 km 78,850,000 ¥ 152 534 2,075
Nishinari Tetsudō 7.4 km 1,705,000 yen 4th 23 227
July 1, 1907 Kyushu Tetsudo 712.6 km 118,856,000 yen 256 391 7.148
Hokkaidō Tetsudō 255.9 km ¥ 11,452,000 27 44 265
August 1, 1907 Kyoto Tetsudo 35.7 km 3,341,000 yen 5 60 100
Hankaku Tetsudo 113.1 km 7,010,000 yen 17th 44 260
Hokuetsu Tetsudo 138.1 km 7,777,000 yen 18th 74 298
September 1, 1907 Sōbu Tetsudō 117.8 km 12,871,000 yen 24 121 274
Bōsō Tetsudō 63.4 km ¥ 2,157,000 9 32 95
Nanao Tetsudo 55.4 km 1,491,000 yen 4th 19th 77
Tokushima Tetsudō 34.6 km ¥ 1,341,000 5 25th 46
October 1, 1907 Kansai Tetsudo 442.9 km 36,130,000 yen 121 571 1,273
Sangū Tetsudō 42.0 km ¥ 5,729,000 10 88 74

literature

  • Dan Free: Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914: Engineering Triumphs That Transformed Meiji-era Japan . Turtle Publishing, Clarendon 2014, ISBN 978-4-8053-1290-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Eiichi Aoki: Japanese Railway History: Expansion of Railway Network. (PDF, 1.5 MB) In: Japan Railway & Transport Review. East Japan Railway Culture Foundation, June 1994, accessed December 21, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Free: Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914. P. 225.
  3. ↑ Free: Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914. Pp. 225-228.
  4. ^ A b Free: Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914. Pp. 228-229.
  5. ↑ a b Mitsuhide Imashiro: Nationalization of Railways and Dispute over Reconstruction to Standard Gauge. (PDF, 247 kB) In: Japan Railway & Transport Review. East Japan Railway Culture Foundation, March 1995, accessed December 21, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Free: Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914. Pp. 229-230.
  7. ↑ Eiichi Aoki: 鉄 道 の 地理学 . WAVE Publishing, Chiyoda 2008, ISBN 978-4-87290-376-8 , pp. 94 .