Separation between Top and Bottom of Railroads in Hokkaido

The company of railway service in Hokkaido island, JR Hokkaido, proposed separation of its management of its eight lines on April 15th. According to its idea, JR Hokkaido will focus on operation of train service in those lines. Maintenance of railway will be made by newly established company, including local governments. Accumulated deficit made JR Hokkaido unable to continue comprehensive management of railway business. 

Except some private railway companies in urban area, the railway service in Japan had been maintained by the government of Japan since it started railway business in 1880s. As families with automobile increased in the era of rapid economic growth in 1960s, passengers of train services significantly decreased and government-owned Japan National Railway (JNR)yielded a great amount of deficit. Former prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone privatized JNR and separated it into six regional companies and one freight company in 1987. JR Hokkaido is one of those six regional companies.

 

Hokkaido has the sparsest population among four main islands of Japan. Accordingly, JR Hokkaido suffered from difficulty in business as a private railway company. While railways in Hokkaido extended widely, as development of Hokkaido was accelerated, it began to shrink along with structural changes in industries. Although one of the major purposes of extending railroad in Hokkaido was transport of coal, the demand of coal was reduced as main energy resource shifted from coal to oil. Small railroads eventually disappeared, as population in rural area declined.

 

In 2016, JR Hokkaido announced that it would not be able to maintain thirteen lines by themselves, because they had been exacerbating financial balance of the company. Those railroads had less than 2,000 passengers a day per one kilometer in average. For instance, Yamanote Line in Tokyo owned by JR East has more than 800,000 passengers per day.

 

Although JR Hokkaido has cut five lines with least efficiency out of the thirteen lines, its financial balance did not improve very much. Cost for running trains exceeded income for transportation in most railroads in Hokkaido. Hokkaido is the coldest region in Japan, requiring a lot of maintenance for railroads and trains. The company finally abandoned its maintenance of the rest of 8 railroads.

 

Those 8 railroads occupy 50 percent of the length of all railroads owned by JR Hokkaido. Some of them are important for sending agricultural products to Tokyo and anywhere in Japan and others are sending people, travelers or commodity to the coastal area of northeast Hokkaido. There is no discussion, however, to maintain security or promote new industry in the region close to Russia.

 

Development in post-war Japan, which identifies itself as an economic giant in the world, has only been discussed in the aspect of economic efficiency, often ignoring the impact on homeland security or balanced development of local communities.

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