AHEAD OF US IN ONE REGARD ANYWAY:

Four expressway firms privatized (Japan Times, 10/02/05)

The four expressway public corporations were privatized Saturday, 4 1/2 years after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi launched his structural reform initiatives to transfer as many public operations to the private sector as possible.

Japan Highway Public Corp. was split into three regional companies, while the other three -- the Metropolitan Expressway Public Corp., Hanshin Expressway Public Corp. and Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority -- were kept intact as private companies.