Japan Railways

Group logo

JR Central Towers administration building in Nagoya

Japan Railways , JR for short , is an umbrella term for the seven legally independent successor companies of the Japanese National Railways ( JNR ) , which was privatized on April 1, 1987 . The company's headquarters are in Nagoya . The article Rail transport in Japan offers a cross-company overview .

Privatization and structure

In the course of privatization, JNR was split into nine successor companies. Six of them are the passenger transport companies that exist today, combined in the JR Group, which both own their own trains and infrastructure and guarantee their operation. National freight traffic is covered by a single company (JR Freight), which has its own trains and station facilities, but uses the route network of the other sub-companies for a fee. The Shinkansen high-speed network was initially owned by the Shinkansen Holding Corporation and leased to the three main passenger carriers. The network is now owned by four JR sub-companies. Immediately after the privatization, a severance pay company took on all the surplus employees.

Overall, the privatization of the Japanese state railway is considered successful. However, legacy financial burdens for the expansion of the high-speed rail network and other routes were significantly reduced by a state rescue company. Measures to partially finance new lines or to compensate for financial losses of public railways will continue to be financed from the state treasury.

The JR Group sets prices and guidelines the same for all sub-companies. In order to guarantee the interoperability of the regional network operators, the JR Technical Research Institute deals with the research and development of joint network and rail technology. The JR Systems Company takes care of the IT infrastructure and a uniform timetable information and reservation system.

Reasons for privatization

Before privatization, the JNR suffered mainly from inefficient investments, high labor costs and financial deficits. There are three main reasons for this:

After the end of World War II, JNR had to hire 250,000 war veterans, which far exceeded the need. The aim was to get war veterans involved in civilian professions as quickly as possible. For JNR this led to an enormous financial burden and an impediment to the company's development: any reform measures were prevented by the political radicalization of the workers.
The rapid recovery of the Japanese economy after the Second World War resulted in strong growth in traffic, in which the JNR was unable to maintain its formerly high market shares due to a lack of adaptability and had to cut back significantly on road traffic.
JNR's tariffs were strictly controlled by politicians. A reduction in the number of employees was therefore not possible to a sufficient extent. In addition, capital was invested in other political projects.

Towards the end of the 1970s, JNR reform became imperative with an annual deficit of approximately US $ 15 billion and liabilities of US $ 250 billion. A stabilization fund was set up to re-establish the successor company of JNR in 1987, and massive state aid was made available. The JR group had until 1993 debt at a height equivalent to 450 billion German marks piled up. The new companies bought by the JNR while the Shinkansen -Hochgeschwindigkeitsstrecken for a total of around 70 billion German marks .

subsidiary company

The areas of the various successor companies (coloring according to company logo)

Business area	Companies		Logo, symbol color	Regions
Business area	Japanese	English	Logo, symbol color	Regions
Passenger transport	Hokkaidō Ryokaku Tetsudō (JR Hokkaidō)	Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido)	light green	Hokkaidō
	Higashi-Nihon Ryokaku Tetsudō (JR Higashi-Nihon)	East Japan Railway Company (JR East)	green	Tōhoku , Kantō , Koshin'etsu
	Tōkai Ryokaku Tetsudō (JR Tōkai)	Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central)	orange	Tōkai
	Nishi-Nihon Ryokaku Tetsudō (JR Nishi-Nihon)	West Japan Railway Company (JR West)	blue	Hokuriku , Kansai , Chūgoku
	Shikoku Ryokaku Tetsudō (JR Shikoku)	Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku)	Light Blue	Shikoku
	Kyūshū Ryokaku Tetsudō (JR Kyūshū)	Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu)	red	Kyushu
Freight transport	Nihon Kamotsu Tetsudō (JR Kamotsu)	Japan Freight Railway Company (JR Freight)	Gray	nationwide
research	Tetsudō Sōgō Gijutsu Kenkyūsho (Tetsudō Sōken)	Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI)	purple	-
IT services	Tetsudō Jōhō System (JR System)	Railway Information Systems	dark red	-

The JR successor companies JR East, JR Central and JR West, i.e. the three companies on the Japanese main island of Honshū , are now profitable and are freely traded on the stock exchange. The other companies are also to be brought to the stock exchange with the help of state infrastructure measures.

Although old liabilities have still not been fully paid off, the Japanese government is now benefiting from incoming tax payments. The quality of the services offered has also increased noticeably. There is also increasing investment in infrastructure and trains.

The RTRI is dedicated to the research and development of joint network and rail technology and JR Systems is responsible for the IT infrastructure as well as a standardized timetable information and reservation system.

In addition, there are also joint smaller companies for advertising, travel agency and lobbying activities.

Route network

Topography and network utilization

The topography of Japan and the geographical arrangement of densely populated metropolitan areas have led to a linear structure of the national rail network. The technical accessibility of Japan by rail is therefore very limited from the start. While Germany is populated with 229 inhabitants per square kilometer , 337 inhabitants share the same area in Japan. More than 46,000 passengers are transported per train kilometer every day. In Germany there are only just under 5,000 passengers. A very high utilization of the rail network is thus generally guaranteed.

Railway infrastructure

In addition, the former state railways never had a monopoly in Japan. Private and state railway companies have existed side by side for over 100 years and operate their own rail networks. The regional JR companies operate around 80 percent of the nationwide route network. The rest is covered by 16 larger private rail operators, 14 subway operators and smaller local lines. The Shinkansen express train network is operated by four of the JR sub-companies.

Technical specifications

The Japanese route network has two technical features. On the one hand, it consists of two different gauges . While the conventional route network uses the so-called Cape Gauge (1,067 mm), the high-speed network with the name Shinkansen was built in standard gauge (1,435 mm).

There are even more differences in the electrifications used; in addition to non-electrified routes, there are five different power systems.

1,500 V =
The complete route network on the southern island of Shikoku , operated by the Shikoku Railway Company , and with a few exceptions the complete (conventional) route network on the main island of Honshū , operated by the West Japan Railway Company , Central Japan Railway Company and East Japan Railway Company , uses DC voltage .
20 kV 50 Hz ~
The entire conventional route network of the northern island of Hokkaidō , operated by the Hokkaido Railway Company , and the Ōu main line (1435 mm gauge) in the north-west of Honshū (East Japan Railway Company) use AC voltage with the world's most frequent use network frequency used.
20 kV 60 Hz ~
The entire conventional route network on the western island of Kyushu is operated by the Kyushu Railway Company with an increased network frequency that is otherwise only widespread in North America except in the south and west of Japan.
25 kV 50 Hz ~
As with most modern high-speed lines , this power system is used on the Hokkaidō Shinkansen (Hokkaido Railway Company), which is under construction, and the Jōetsu Shinkansen and Tōhoku Shinkansen , as well as the eastern part of the Nagano Shinkansen (all East Japan Railway Company).
25 kV 60 Hz ~
The western section of the Nagano Shinkansen, which is later to be extended to Osaka as the Hokuriku Shinkansen , and the remaining high-speed lines Tōkaidō-Shinkansen (Central Japan Railway Company), San'yō-Shinkansen (West Japan Railway Company) and Kyūshū-Shinkansen (Kyushu Railway Company) again have the increased network frequency.

literature

Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies: Railway reforms in Europe - A position assessment. Eurailpress Hamburg 2005.
Kemnitz, Joachim: Learning from Great Britain means learning to privatize - From going public to begging? Railway privatization between ideal and reality. In: Der Fahrgast, Issue 97, 1/2004, pp. 18-20
Mayer, Oliver: Learning from Japan ... means learning quality - How the Japanese operate their railways. In: Der Fahrgast, Issue 98, 2/2004, pp. 15-16.
Schwede, Susanne: The Privatization of the Japanese National Railways (JNR) - An Analysis Based on the Economic Theory of Politics. Contributions from the Institute for Transport Science at the University of Münster, Issue 141, 1st edition, Göttingen 1996.
Sumita, Shoji: Success Story - The Privatization of Japanese National Railways, Profile Books London 2000.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Report income and profits at JR . In: Railway technical review . 42, No. 5, 1993, p. 279

Web links

Commons : JR Group - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Online timetable of the JR
Japanese Railway Society (English)
Japan Railway & Transport Review
Hisakyu's Railway Guide ( Memento of March 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
extensive literature list on rail privatization in Japan

[etr-1993-5-279-1] Report income and profits at JR . In: Railway technical review . 42, No. 5, 1993, p. 279