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1 General Economic Trends and Transport Activities (Table
5,Table 6)
(1) Trends of Passenger Transport
(a) Domestic Transport
Amidst increasing demand for leisure over the years, and the notable towards
economic slowdown on the other hand, the volume of domestic passenger traffic
in fiscal 1991 increased steadily proportionate to the total number of passengers
carried seeing a 3.1% increase compared to the previous year of 80.4 billion
and the total passenger-kilometers seeing a 2.5% increase of 1 trillion 331
billion passenger-kilometers. However, a lower performance was recorded for
some others thansport systems.
As seen according to the transport system, railways showed a slowdown of
growth in mainly non-commuters, and a tendency towards decrease in passengers
taking regular buses came to a halt with improvements made in road traffic in
city areas. Passengers of hired cars and taxis still show continued signs of
decrease. Although passengers of private passenger cars are growing, the average
transport distance is shortening, And maintained its relatively high growth
by expanding the transport capacities of local lines, despite marginal growth
of its trunk lines.
(b) International Transport
The number of Japanese who traveled out of Japan in colendar year 1991 decreascd
drastically in the first half of the year because of the gulf war but recovered
in the latter and exceeded 10 million people for the second straight year. The
number of people entering Japan was a record high 3.53 million visitors, surpassing
the 0.29 million visitors in 1990 that had been the highest number ever recorded
in the past.
(2) Trends of Freight Transport
(a) Domestic Transport
Affected by the slowdown of the high economic growth that had lasted until
fiscal 1990, the volume of freight traffic in fiscal 1991 for both tonnage carried
and tonnage-kilometers fell below the growth rate in fiscal 1990 with 6.919
billion tonnage carried--an increase of 2.1% as compared to the previous year
and 0.55995 tonnage-kilometers, a 2.4% increase.
According to transport systems, all transport systems-railways, automobiles,
coastal shipping, aviation-showed a low growth with a decrease at freight traffic
because of the economic slowdown. The tonnage carried and tonnage kilometers
both railways especially suffered a drop in seasonal transport capacity because
of typhoon damages fell below those of fiscal 1990.
(b) International Transport
Although the global economy showed a slowdown in its growth rate on the
whole in calendar year 1991, because the economy of the Asian countries was
relatively favorable, the international seaborne trade was at a record high.
Of this, Japan's seaborne trade (ton based) increased for both import and export.
The total of import and export increased for the 5th consecutive year.
(3) Recent Transport Trends (April to July Performances of 1992)
The Tokaido Shinkansen "Nozomi" started operations in March 1992 and the
Yamagata Shinkansen "Tsubasa" in July. Of domestic passenger traffic, railway
commuters are steady but other transport systems show sluggish progress on the
whole. Domestic freight traffic have also been low on the whole due to the economic
slowdown. International airline passengers show a strong downward trend, one
of the reasons being a reaction to the fall in overseas traveling in the first
half of fiscal 1991 because of the gulf war.
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