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Sigh. I've got nothing against thinking big, but this is not the kind of investment Japan needs right now. BIG money, for only an incremental improvement. (T

• snogglethorpe 13y ago
  The "ministry" isn't paying for it—it's being privately financed by JR central (which is a private company). From Wikipedia: "On December 25, 2007, JR Central announced that it plans to raise funds for the construction of the Chuo Shinkansen on its own, without government financing."
  • Pitarou 13y ago
    An accounting trick to keep the debt off the government books. A project of that scale could not possibly happen in Japan without whole-hearted government support. (I know I sound like a grumpy cynic, but I've learnt from experience that one can rarely go wrong being cynical about powerful Japanese institutions.)
    • snogglethorpe 13y ago
      The government is certainly involved to a degree—you can hardly build something of this scale otherwise, there are simply too many third parties to deal with—but I've seen no reason to think that the financing is "an accounting trick." Simple general cynicism is all well and good, but it isn't really worth much absent actual evidence. This is particularly true in the case of JR-central / east / west, which are well-run and solid companies, and a model for how to do privatization successfully.