Japan Railways Hokkaido[0] is private corporation, not a government agency Notionally. In practice, their operations are fairly minutely controlled -- sorry,

Japan Railways Hokkaido[0] is private corporation, not a government agency Notionally. In practice, their operations are fairly minutely controlled -- sorry, "guided" -- by various levels of government, which explains, among many other things, why the JRs continue to operate tons of lines that are loss-making.