Japan Objects to State Ownership.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 12, 1 October 1906, Page 354

Japan Objects to State Ownership.

The prospect of State-owned railways meets with no greater approbation m Japan than in other countries that are thus blessed. Already part of the railways in Japan belong to the State, and a writer m a Tokyo contemporary thus caustically refers to the shortcomings of the State-managed railway — " In connection with the movement in favour of the railways of Japan being nationalised and made a Government monopoly, it is most sincerely to be hoped that the common sense of the people at large will prevent the scheme being carried into effect as if all competition is removed there is no knowing to what extent travellers may be inconvenienced. I am a daily traveller on the section between Yokohama and Yokosuka, and if the management on that section is a fair sample of the administration on other parts of the line, I can only say that it would seem as if the Government Railway Bureau must be managed by persons who have undergone a State examination and been selected on account of their incompetency. " Between Kamakura and Yokohama, a distance of only about 13 miles, the trains usually take about one hour to ' crawl ' the distance, the carriages are filthy, uncomfortable at any time, and bitterly cold and draughty in winter, and the service is simply rotten Delay and confusion takes place at almost every point of the line."