Yes. How would private equity buy them unless they were private companies already?

By privatizing them. Look at European rail in the past 50 years.

hollerith 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The point is that Japan has a well-established private-equity industry [1] so the fact that PE firms haven't ruined Japanese railways suggests that PE firms aren't universal corrosive solvents like you seem to want us to believe they are.

[1] https://flippa.com/blog/pe-funds/japan-private-equity-firms/

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rwmj 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Or it could be there are Japanese laws or customs preventing them from doing it. The article mentions maximum fare prices for example. Japanese antitrust law is strong and thoroughly enforced.

	▲	Ekaros 7 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Most likely more long term thinking in culture. Where as in West every single person just think of ways to profit in absolute shortest possible ways. Even if that were to kill untold trillions of human beings. After all what does a few hundred million dead matter if you can make extra cent from your company.
	▲	hollerith 7 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Your first sentence might in fact be true, but you've presented no evidence or argument that it is, so all you've done so far is make a cheap dig at America's private-equity industry with nothing to back it up. I fail to see how the topic of this comment thread (namely "why Japan has such good railways") sheds any light on the US PE industry or vice versa. Maybe you can explain the link. (If you can't then your cheap dig is also off-topic.) (And I fail to see how antitrust law in particular might constrain a PE firm in any way.)