Unlike the expressway systems of the U.S. and Europe, where road use is largely free of charge, the Japanese expressway system consists mostly of toll roads. The toll expressway system was instituted after World War II to expedite construction of a nation-wide expressway network. Originally it...

The main purpose of this paper is to estimate and evaluate the social costs of highways in Japan. In general, with more people concerned about protecting the environment at both local and global levels, dependence on vehicular transportation in cities has brought about problems. Too much...

The main purpose of this paper is to estimate and evaluate the social costs of highways in Japan. In general, with more people concerned about protecting the environment at both local and global levels, dependence on vehicular transportation in cities has brought about problems. Too much...

This paper has aimed to provide information useful to policy makers involved in planning for the management of postal service. Five countries were selected?the UK, France, Germany, US and Japan?and the characteristics of their postal services were described in terms of regulation,...

By using the empirical method, this paper analyzes Japan' s ``special" post office and evaluates universal service obligation (USO) costs. With empirical analysis, we obtained the following results. First, the cost of the special post office is about 9.8% higher than that of the ``ordinal" post...

There is a major policy debate within Europe and more widely on how to structure railway systems to enhance competition, whilst minimising costs. This is the first study in the academic literature to examine, using econometric methods, the cost impacts of three different approaches to...

Due to the steady increase in the use of private autos in Japan, the bus business is facing hard times. In particular, bus services owned by public organizations have been struggling with increases in operating deficits and subsidies, so that recently in many cities there has been a call for...

Although it has for years had a lower unemployment rate than other industrialized countries, Japan has begun to see an increase in unemployment since its economy was hit by the recession of the late 90's. The level of a nation's unemployment is commonly seen as a barometer of its economy's...

The main purpose of this study is to determine whether public capital contributes to productivity growth and, if so, what kind of public capital contributes most. We analyze a dataset of 46 prefectures in Japan over 41 years, from 1955 to 1995, and estimate the production function as the...

Inefficient use of public money is a policy issue of concern in Japan. Some contend that spending towards the formation of public capital does not promote economic growth, one reason being that such investment is concentrated in underdeveloped regions which have a low impact on the growth of...