After outlining characteristics of Japan's distribution sector, a comprehensive international comparison of it to those of other nations is presented and analyzed for underlying differences. This leads to an explanation of Japan's retail store density, which is then related to the structure of...

We examined the impact of the ongoing electricity system reform in Japan on social welfare, retail electricity service level and retail electricity prices. In our paper, the default system is monopolistic and combines average cost pricing with fixed entity profit, while the reformed system is...