Chapter 3  JR Group's New Developments and Tasks Remaining After JNR Reform


3. 1 JR Group's New Developments



   As for the settlement of accounts of the JR group for fiscal 1987, which was inaugurated on April, 1987, the seven companies recorded a total of \151.5 billion in ordinary profit and \50 billion in current-term profit. These figures indicate that the JR business went generally smoothly for an initial year. The main reason is that, in addition to their management improvement efforts, such as increased earnings and cost reductions, the transport volume increased on the strength of a business recovery and other factors.
    In fiscal 1988, the JR companies carried out business operations in a positive way. Although it is difficult to draw a hasty conclusion about the result, it is believed that the JR business has gone generally smoothly as far as their handling revenues are concerned. (Table 4)

 


3. 2 Tasks Remaining After JNR Reform



   The settlement of the JNR long-term debt to be made by the JNR Settlement Corporation, the re-employment of former JNR employees and the JNR pension problem are the most important tasks remaining after the JNR reform, and we have to tackle these tasks in a positive way.
   As for the settlement of the long-term debt, the Corporation is carrying out the business of disposing former JNR assets, giving consideration to various land price curbing measures, in accordance with the basic repayment policy decided by the Cabinet in January, 1988. Since land-sale tenders were postponed in some areas where land prices were rising at an unusual pace, the land sale in fiscal 1987 was about half the amount originally scheduled.
   The settlement of accounts for fiscal 1987 shows that, although the Corporation endeavored to secure financial resources of its own, the long-term debt rose to \20.4 trillion at the end of the fiscal year from \18.1 trillion at the beginning of the fiscal year; the debt to be settled, including pension and other burdens to be borne in the future, rose to \26.2 trillion at the end of the fical year from \25.6 trillion at the beginning of the fiscal year.
   The re-employment of former JNR employees has been carried out in accordance with the re-employment promotion basic plan decided by the Cabinet in June, 1987; the number of those unable to find a new job totaled 7,628 as of April 1, 1987, which dropped to 4,292 as of November 1, 1988.

 


3. 3 Review of JNR Reform



(1) As for passenger transport, the volume increased 3.6% from the previous fiscal year, including increases in Hokkaido. Shikoku and Kyushu where passenger transport had shown a trend of decrease. As for freight transport, the volume was about the same as the previous year on a ton-kilometer basis; in sum, the business went generally smoothly. (Table 5)
(2) According to the settlement of accounts, the seven JR companies and others recorded a total of about \160 billion in current-term profit. The JNR Settlement Corporation recorded a de facto loss of about \1,170 billion, excluding the loss amounting to the debt which the Corporation had succeeded from the Japanese Railway Construction Public Corporation. Therefore, the overall profit-loss situation in fiscal 1987 resulted in a loss of about \1,010 billion, an improvement of about \350 billion over the pure loss of about \1,360 billion reckoned up in the JNR settlement of accounts for fiscal 1986.
(3) As for the JR group's long-term debts, the JR companies and the Shinkansen Holding Corporation saw a decrease of about \400 billion and about \100 billion, respectively, and the JNR Settlement Corporation saw an increase of about \2.3 trillion, at the end of fiscal 1987, compared with the figures at the beginning of the fiscal year.

 


Back TopPage Next