Wednesday 18 June 2003
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Japanese National Railways
13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle (entrance facing Regent's Park), London NW1 4QP
Organised by JR Central
Japanese National Railways – Its Break-up and Privatization, written by one of the key insiders, offers a rare look into the politics, economics and human cost of the largest and most challenging privatization undertaken in Japan to date.
The author, Yoshiyuki Kasai, today President of JR Central which runs the Shinkansen on the 500-km route between Tokyo and Osaka, originally joined JNR in 1963 in order to ‘fight to the death with a rail as a pillow’, subsequently became Deputy Director-General of the Personnel Department during the break-up process, completed in 1987.
He concludes: “…the privatization of JNR and the establishment of the new JR framework (six regional companies and one freight company) was achieved through a process in which many compromises were made and was by no means perfect…[but]…the objectives have been achieved more successfully than most expected.”
Added value to the volume is provided by a recorded discussion between Yoshiyuki Kasai (JR Central), Sir Steve Robson (UK) and Diethelm Sack (Deutsche Bahn) on the principles and implementation of rail privatization regardingJapan,BritainandGermany.
The English edition is a slightly abridged version of original Japanese edition, published in 2001, entitled Mikan no kokutetsu kaikaku (‘Unfinished Reform of Japanese National Railways’), which became a best-seller.
About the contributors
George Olcott
George Olcott, a close friend of the author over many years and former associate of UBS Warburg, was responsible for the final version of the translation. Currently a doctoral student at Cambridge University, researching the impact on Japanese companies of foreign ownership, especially in human resource management, Mr Olcott will provide an ‘outsider’s’ overview of the break-up and privatization process as he experienced it while living in Japan (he has lived and worked there for over twenty years) as well as the challenges facing a translator in capturing the nuances of the bureaucratic and technical language of the industry within the context of Japanese culture.
Christopher P Hood and Nozomu Nakaoka
Two other contributors to the translation were Christopher P Hood, Director of the Cardiff Japanese Studies Centre, Cardiff University; whose current research is on Japan’s Shinkansen, and Nozomu Nakaoka, lecturer on the Japanese and Asian Economies, Washington University, St Louis.