Yamatai National Railway Group

The Yamatai National Railway Group (山都国有鉄道系列), more commonly known as Kokutetsu (国鉄), is a Yamataian partially-privatised responsible for a large amount of formerly-nationalised rail operations in Yamatai. It consists of five for-profit companies that took over most of the assets and operations of the wholly government-owned Yamatai Imperial Railways on 1 April 1960.

The Kokutetsu lies at the heart of Yamatai's railway network, operating a large proportion of intercity rail service, commuter rail service, freight rail service, and the Shinkyuko high-speed rail lines. Kokutetsu comprises of four regional subsidiaries, YNR East, YNR South, YNR Central, and YNR West, as well as YNR Freight. Kokutetsu operates primarily in the Naichi Archipelago, with the train lines on Hinomoto largely handled by the Hinoan Railway Corporation. The only Kokutetsu service on Hinomoto is the Hamato Express, which crosses to Chisei via the Chisei-Hinomoto Tunnel.

History
Railways in Yamatai had long been nationalised under the Yamatai Imperial Railways, which was owned by the government and the Yamatai Imperial Army. Following the defeat of Yamatai in the Second Escar-Varunan War, the Yamatai Imperial Railways suffered and faced heavy losses in the post-war era. Charges of serious management inefficiencies, profit losses, and fraud were levelled against the Imperial Railways, and passenger and freight business severely declined. Okabe Nariakira, then the Imperial Grand Marshal, made the decision to privatise the railway system.

Yamatai Imperial Railways was reorganised into a government-owned holding company and the four regional companies and YNR Freight were created as private subsidiaries in 1956. The Yamatai Imperial Railways company remained to dispose of assets and debts not absorbed by the subsidiaries and to execute other activities relating to the breakup, such as outplacement of former personnel. On 1 April 1960, the Yamatai National Railway Group was founded as a private joint-stock company and took over ownership of the five rail subsidiaries previously under Yamatai Imperial Railways.

The new companies introduced competition, cut their staffing, and made reform efforts. Initial public reaction to these moves was good: the combined passenger travel on the Yamatai National Railways Group passenger companies in 1961 was 204.7 billion passenger-kilometres, up 3.2% from 1960, while the passenger sector previously had been stagnant since 1945. Demand for rail transport improved, although it still accounted for only 28% of passenger transportation and only 5% of cargo transportation in 1990. Rail passenger transportation was superior to automobiles in terms of energy efficiency and of speed in long distance transportation.