Privatization of Public City Gas Utilities (Kobe University Monograph Series in Social Science Research)

This book is a study on the Japanese city gas industry, which has been rapidly liberalized in recent years. Especially, it focuses on the background, reasons, methods, and effects of the privatization of publicly owned city gas utilities in Japan. In Japan, after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the liberalization of the electric power and gas business has progressed rapidly. There are a number of studies on the reform of Japan's electricity market, but there are few studies on city gas business. This book describes the state of Japan's public city gas utilities and the necessity of their privatization. And it explains the role of concession as a method of privatization. Then it verifies that the effects of past privatization cases are insufficient. The book also covers deregulation of public utilities in Europe, which triggered Japan's liberalization of its energy and other public utility sectors, and privatization of electricity and gas businesses in India, a developing country in Asia. Finally, this book explores future regulation and business of city gas industry. Pipeline network should be regulated to comply with future unbundling starting from 2022, and gas business altogether with electricity and water businesses need more digitization. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvi Privatization of Public City Gas Utilities in Japan: Reasons, Objectives, and Methods (Takashi Yanagawa)....Pages 1-15 Survival Analysis of Public Gas Utility Firms in the Japanese City Gas Industry (Satoshi Myojo, Takuro Tanaka)....Pages 17-36 Concession in Infrastructure Management: A Case of Public Gas Service in Japan (Kenichiro Fukuda)....Pages 37-48 A Study on the Background and Issues of Privatization of Public City Gas Utilities in Japan—Implications by Comparing Several Business Analysis Indicators (Teizo Anayama)....Pages 49-71 Privatization of Public Utilities: Results from the UK Experiment (Munenori Nomura)....Pages 73-96 Issues in the Development of the Energy Distribution Sector in India: The Cases of the Electricity and Gas Industries (Atsushi Fukumi)....Pages 97-114 New Designs for Regulations on City Gas Pipeline Networks in Japan (Shinichi Kusanagi)....Pages 115-127 New Designs for City Gas Businesses in the Era of the Fully Liberalized Gas Retail Markets in Japan (Shinichi Kusanagi)....Pages 129-140 Back Matter ....Pages 141-143