W. Japan Railroad Operators’ Earnings Driven Up by Expo

Osaka, Dec. 1 (Jiji Press)–The 2025 World Exposition in Osaka has boosted earnings at major railroad operators in western Japan, with Osaka Metro Co. and Western Japan Railway Co., or JR West, set to pay special bonuses to their employees. Four out of six major railroads in the Kansai region have revised up their net profit projections for the year ending next March. Osaka Metro decided to pay extraordinary bonuses of up to 200,000 yen per employee after seeing the number of passengers at Yumeshima Station, the nearest station to the six-month event through October, top 40 million. JR West will pay up to 120,000 yen for not only a passenger surge but robust sales of authorized Expo goods led by the popularity of “Myaku-Myaku,” the official mascot for the exhibition held on the artificial island of Yumeshima in Osaka Bay. “The hotel room occupancy rate (during the period) was higher than expected,” said Masaya Ueno, executive vice president of Keihan Holdings Co. “Hotels in Osaka, in particular, had been packed,” Ueno noted. The railroad group’s leisure and service businesses logged an 82 pct year-on-year rise in operating profit for April-September. Meanwhile, Kintetsu Group Holdings Co., whose railroad network even extends beyond Kansai to the central prefecture of Aichi, failed to fully benefit from the Expo as its efforts to lure Expo visitors to tourist sites along Kintetsu Railway Co. lines in Nara and Mie Prefectures, both east of the city of Osaka, did not bear fruit as intended. Despite video advertisements to promote those sites on Osaka Metro trains, “passengers bound for (Mie’s) Shima region were fewer than anticipated,” said Kintetsu Group Managing Executive Officer Hiroyuki Kasamatsu. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]