> the most striking institutional feature of Japanese rail is that it is privately owned by a throng of competing companies.

Knowing the author I knew it was going to be his main argument before even opening the blog post. And it's obviously wrong, these companies don't compete with one another, they all have a local monopoly. (The article itself acknowledges that and even acknowledges the organizational benefits of such monopolies, but the author could refrain himself from praising the virtue of competition nonetheless…)

There are many places in Japan where multiple companies compete over the same area