Passenger transportation in Japan's main metropolitan areas is operated by the JR companies, which were privatized and divested from Japan National Railways (JNR) in 1987 and by 16 major private railway companies with large-scale operations. Although their core business is transportation, the...

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic seriously affected railway businesses. The motivation of this study is to provide vital information to railway company management and policymakers by quantitatively assessing the cost efficiency of railway operations. We examine the efficiency of Japanese...