The World’s Largest Railway System
Privatizes & Now Earns Big Bucks! Boyé Lafayette De Mente
Privatizes & Now Earns Big Bucks! Boyé Lafayette De Mente
Japan has the most comprehensive railway system in the world, and now that it has been privatized it makes huge profits—providing a lesson for other countries to follow.
In 1987 the government-owned and operated Japan National Railways (JNR) was losing trillions of yen a year and service had been going down hill for decades.
That year the government allowed the system to divide itself up into regional divisions and go private. The operators of the newly privatized companies immediately began turning them into profit-making enterprises by integrating their major stations with retailers selling everything from high fashions to foodstuffs.
This was not a new idea. Thousands of urban commuter stations throughout the country already functioned as shopping centers.
What turned the formerly government-run money-losing railway system into a cash cow was renovating and building new stations that combined ticket-selling with retailing goods and services on a massive scale.
The new and enlarged stations included department stores, shopping arcades, dozens of restaurants, fresh food markets, confectionery shops, bookstores, travel agents, hotels, and more.
Not only do train passengers shop at these outlets, such stations as Shinjuku and Shinagawa in Tokyo, the main station in Kyoto, and hundreds of others, attract a steady stream of shoppers and diners who patronize the places because they offer such a variety of things and are the ultimate in convenience.
Japan Railways East (JR East), which serves the Tokyo area and points north, is now one of the most profitable enterprises in the country.
JR East is not resting on its laurels. It is turning the area around Tokyo Central Station into an astounding collection of high-rise smart buildings, one of which will host the downtown campuses of 10 of the country's most prestigious universities.
Smart travelers have learned that it is far more convenient to stay, shop and dine in a major railway station complex like Kyoto Central Station than it is to put up in a hotel away from the station.
Other countries are beginning to pick up on examples set by Japan’s railway companies, returning some sense to the challenge of providing transportation and ambiance for huge masses of people.
Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
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To see a list of 40-plus books on Japan by the author, go to: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
