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Abstract
In October 2005, the Japan Highway Public Corporation was privatized and separated into three expressway companies. Three other public corporations were privatized as well: the Metropolitan Expressway Public Corporation, the Hanshin Expressway Public Corporation and the Honshu‐Shikoku Bridge Authority. The main purpose of this study is to overview the privatization policy taken by the government and to assess the preliminary organizational reforms. We will focus especially on policy issues such as horizontal separation, vertical (management‐holding) separation and regulatory changes, comparing the before‐privatization and after‐privatization periods of the Japan Highway Public Corporation. Evaluations will be based on empirical investigation and theory, as well as on lessons learned from the privatization of the Japan National Railway.
† The previous version of this paper was presented at the 46th Congress for the European Regional Science Association, held at the University of Thessaly, 30 August–3 September 2006.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank participants at the Congress for the European Regional Science Association for valuable comments. Part of this article has been supported by funds from the 21st century COE programme (Research, Development and Education Centre for Advanced Business Systems) and a research grant from the Ministry of Education and Science.
Notes
† The previous version of this paper was presented at the 46th Congress for the European Regional Science Association, held at the University of Thessaly, 30 August–3 September 2006.
1. The details of special committee meetings on the privatization of the four highway public corporations have been recorded by several people, both committee and non‐committee members (e.g. Inose, Citation2003; Kakumoto, Citation2004, Citation2005; Kawamoto, Citation2004; Tanaka, Citation2004). Although all are proponents of the privatization of highway public corporations, most people have thought that the highway privatization taken by the government was a failure in policy because of incomplete privatization.
2. Based upon each year's statistics issued by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the pavement ratio of national roads was 17.2% at the end of FY1955 and 32.6% in FY1960.
3. Okano et al. (Citation2002) pointed out that the term ‘management‐infrastructure‐holding separation’ would be more precise because both newly created organizations are engaging only in infrastructure services, one in the management of highways and the other in holding highway assets. However, government officials and many others use the term ‘vertical separation’, so we also employ this term as well.