Research To The Formation Of Post-War Privatization Policy Of Japanese Public-owned Enterprises

There were two extensive reforms of the ownership of the enterprises from the public-owned to private-owned in Japan after the World War II. Both of the reforms were set in the background of the tidal wave of the privatization of the public sectors taking place in the capitalist countries since the 1970's. The interior reason was the financial difficulty the government facing, of all the enterprises the railway and dawk companies was the worst. Both of the reforms experienced drastic conflicts and unavoidable compromises because of the complex pattern of interest in Japan. The thesis, taking the state-owned railway companies and dawk companies as example, attempts to open out the mechanism of policy of it on the basis of the analysis of the course of the privatization.Both of the reforms were led by the government and active participation of all the companies concerned. The government was the sponsor and dominant element; but it made no final decision. The blue print put up by the government could only be carried out by the agreement of all concerning parts through the conflict and compromise of the government and every interest principal part.Some organization sodalities, for instance EUA, took active part in the formation of the policy and were one of the main propellants, because they wanted to give up the government's idea of increasing the taxes, and they also wanted to break the monopoly of the companies owned by the state, so as to increase the vagueness of the economy.Other cross-bencher consultation institutions of the prime minister made their special contributions by means of investigation, promoting dialogues, harmonization of the interest, clamping down and drafting of the blue print due to their broad representation.The state own corporations, departments in charge, and councilors were always the opposition, that was because they wanted to keep their vested interest. They showed. their opposition by means of their speeches when the departments in charge put the plan to discussion, and in the parliament they always took the oppose vote.The public media dug a channel for all the people to participate the discussion. They focused the course of the making of the reform, and frequently they demonstrated their own and sometimes the public views. Some pressmen could participated in the decision through investigation and consultation institutions.The economic discipline and the public opinion in the voting were the invisible mighty force in the course of the privatization.The course of the privatization was also the course of the lasting and rough conflict and compromise, before which different interest must be harmonized. This was beneficial to have a thorough understanding of the facts, to centralize the wisdom, to guarantee a smooth implementation and to decrease the economic and social cost. However, following the mechanism, the efficiency of the decision making was so low that compared with the original aim the achievement of the privatization they got abated quite a lot.As to the two privatizations, the first was carried out by and large led both by the government and entrepreneurs. While the second depended on the toughness of the politicians, who implemented it by such means as disbandment of the House of Representatives and so on. This revealed that some politicians such as Koizumi tried to seek ways to improve the efficiency in decision making. But as long as the multi-interest pattern in Japanese social and political circumstances stayed unchanged, could the mechanism of privatization be led by the government.The paper consists of 4 parts. The first is to introduce the privatization of the state own railway corporations; the second is the course of the privatization of Japanese Dawk Corporation; the third deals with the mechanism of the privatization of public owned companies; the fourth focuses on the cooperation of the ways of both of the privatization.