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Passenger transportation by Japanese National Railways (JNR) increased
to 215.6 billion passenger-kilometers in fiscal 1979, but its growth was small
as compared with the growth of total domestic passenger transport Moreover,
passenger transport by JNR began to show a downtrend in fiscal 1980.
Cargo transport by JNR marked time during the 1960s while the total domestic
cargo transport increased every year. Moreover, JNR cargo began to decrease
with the 62.4 billion ton-kilometers in fiscal 1970 as its peak. (See
Figs. 18 and 19)
During the last decade, the managerial crisis of the JNR took on increased
proportions, and the rehabilitation of JNR is now an urgent task. JNR's performance
has been worsening every year because of (1) a decline in cargo and the stagnation
in the growth of passengers due to changes in the nation's socioeconomic fabric
JNR passengers decreased since 1975), (2) a steep rise in various costs due
to the oil crisis which pushed up prices and wages, (3) insufficiency of measures
taken to improve the JNR's performance, such as reexamination of the JNR's carrying
capacity and curtailment of personnel to cope with the trend in load demand,
and (4) the failure to increase the passenger fares and freightage as scheduled.
Despite an increase in Government subsidies since fiscal 1975, JNR is running
a staggering annual deficit of ￥800-900 billion. Its cumulative total deficit
as of the end of fiscal 1979, including the frozen part of the fiscal 1976 deficit,
topped ￥6 trillion. (See Tables
15 and 16) Among problems
facing JNR are (1) how to have a competitive edge in the transport market (2)
how to reduce the swelling personnel cost, (3) how to cope with the accumulating
interest payments accompanying capital investment, (4) how to revise the fare
and freight system and (5) what to do with the concessionaire fares.
The Government and JNR took steps three times since fiscal 1 969 to cope
with the deterioration in the JNR's performance, but failed to attain their
objective for the above reasons. A new rehabilitation program was mapped out
in fiscal 1979 for the purpose of laying the foundations for a sound JNR management
and bringing about an equilibrium between revenue and expenditure as quickly
as possible. This rehabilitation program was mapped out as the last such program
with an unusually strong determination to put the JNR house in order, and is
based on the recognition that with a large number of employees soon reaching
retirement age, an opportunity to carry out an effective personnel cut has arrived
and that JNR would become a tremendous burden on public finances if its financial
condition were left as it is.
On the basis of the new rehabilitation program, JNR will carry out measures
to improve its management, such as drastic streamlining of its management, measures
concerned with local transportation, personnel cut and increases in passenger
fares and freightage, while the Government will take administrative and financial
measures to back them up. For the enforcement of these measures, the 93rd extraordinary
Diet voted into law, on November 28, 1980, "the Emergency Bill to Promote Rehabilitation
of the Japanese National Railways Management" (See
Fig 20)
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