Folks let's briefly examine the JR Group (excluding freight--for now, at least)
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Both JR Hokkaido and JR Shikoku will not be able to continue in their current state--they will either close down or get new backers...
...either from local government or from their more successful JR neighbors--East for Hokkaido, West for Shikoku.
JR Kyushu is doing the best among these three--8.5% profit--but even they aren't getting blood from a stone...look at the transport share...
...it's only 47.9%, less than half. JR Kyushu is managing to operate a railway in a rural setting with declining population...
...because it is getting more than half of its revenue from related (non-transport) business. And what about its transport side?
For starters, they have HSR in Kyushu, connecting to the rest of Japan--this is over a third of their passenger business, too.
Furthermore, JR Kyushu has made an extraordinary effort to distinguish itself on the basis of luxurypic.twitter.com/9104gAbY2U
The upshot of which is that many trains in Kyushu are tourist attractions in their own right, so visitors make up a huge share of ridership
All that--side businesses, luxury trains, and HSR connections to busier places--is what it takes for a rural rail company to stay solvent
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