In the face of these trends, the JNR saw its business slump and its deficit mount. In an effort to streamline the railway's operations, the Government privatized the JNR in April 1987 and split it up into six regional passenger companies and one freight company, renaming them the Japan Railways group. In addition to the JR companies, some 170 private railway companies provide regional transportation services. In major cities, subway systems are an important means of transport. Tokyo's subway network has a total length of around 230 kilometers.
Subways also operate in eight other cities, including Osaka and Nagoya.
When it comes to paving ratios, however, Japan lags behind. The same is true for expressways. As of April 1995 Japan had a total of 5,677 kilometers of expressway linking its major cities, compared with more than 80,000 kilometers in the United States, more than 8,000 kilometers in Germany, and around 7,000 kilometers in France and Italy. Nevertheless, Japan is making rapid progress in the development of its expressway network, the total length of which has almost doubled over the past decade. Japan's annual investment in its road system now exceeds expenditure in the United States and is several times the figure for West European countries.