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—bu

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.