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.