DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY OF JAPANESE URBAN PRIVATE RAILWAYS : An Economic Analysis of Strategy and its Policy Implications

在大多数工业化国家，公有制、补贴和运营赤字通常被认为是提供城市公共交通的必然结果。然而，在日本，许多私营企业提供充足的城市交通，并且在没有补贴的情况下盈利。虽然有利的城市结构(人口稠密的城市和集中的城市核心)等因素改善了铁路活动的盈利能力，但多元化和一体化战略的创新使用在私营铁路公司的成功中发挥了重要作用。多元化战略带来的好处包括：1)降低政府提供的补贴的潜力；2)运营商更大的利润潜力，这可能增加私人主动提供城市交通服务的可能性，并可能改善对用户的服务质量和数量；3)促进有效的区域发展；4)更多地使用节能、占用有限空间和造成较少污染的运输方式。反对采用多元化战略的主要理由是，多元化战略给社会带来的收益可能会超过限制竞争带来的成本。通过这项研究，我们可以找到一些有价值的见解，为未来研究日本私人铁路和城市公共交通的市场战略奠定坚实的基础。这项研究分析了各专业的内部多元化战略及其集团层面的活动。通过这项研究，我们认为，日本的模式体现了这样一种情景，即铁路系统可以在没有补贴的情况下私人运营，铁路运营商多元化进入不受监管的地区应该被认为是处理城市交通问题的一种可以接受的方式。

In most industrialized countries, public ownership, subsidies, and operating deficits are generally taken as a given to the provision of urban public transportation. In Japan, however, numerous privately owned enterprises provide adequate urban transportation and operate profitably without subsidization. While factors such as a favorable urban structure (densely populated cities with concentrated urban cores) have improved the profitability of rail activities, it is and has been the innovative use of diversification and integration strategies that have played an important role in allowing the private rail firm's success.The benefits accrued to a diversification strategy include : 1) the potential to lower subsidies provided by the government ; 2) greater profit potential for operators which may increase the likelihood of private initiative in the provision of urban transportation and may lead to improved quality and quantity of service for users ; 3) enhanced the effective regional developments ; 4) the enhanced use of a mode of transport that is energy efficient, occupies limited space and causes less pollution. The main argument against the utilization of a diversification strategy is the possibility that the benefits to society accrued through diversification strategy may outweigh the costs due to restricted competition.Through this study, we could figure out several valuable insights which give use firm base for future research for market strategy of Japanese private rails and provision of urban public transportation. The study analyzes the in-house diversification strategy of the majors and their group level activity. From this study, we claims that the Japanese model exemplifies a scenario under which railway systems can be privately operated without subsidization and diversification into unregulated areas by the rail operators should be considered acceptable as a way of dealing with the urban transportation problem.