I am looking for information on why the Japanese railway system was
privatized (in 1987, I believe).  Specfically, what events lead up to
the decision for privatization and why the result was successful.  I
want to look at this from both political and economical standpoints.

Dear pxld,

I have located a number of documents explaining the various political
and economical reasons for privatization of the Japanese National
Railways (JNR), the different concepts that had been concidered, the
process of privatization itself and the results. Because the
information given in these sources has proven partially highly complex
and any attempt to summarize it could distort the general image or
mangle the substance, I have decided to lead you directly to the best
of these documents and give short specifications of content.

This study by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and
Transport from 1996 describes very comprehensive the development and
changes in the public transport sector finally leading to the JNR
reform in 1987.
http://www.mlit.go.jp/english/white-paper/unyu-whitepaper/1996/1996010001.html
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Annual Report of
Transport Economy, 1996: The 10th Year Since the Japan National
Railway Reform.

The Messrs. Fumitoshi Mizutani, of the Graduate School of Business
Administration at Kobe University, and Kiyoshi Nakamura, of the School
of Commerce at Waseda University, have compiled a detailed
26-page-analysis of the JNR privatization, giving reasons why the
process must be consideres a success and explaining why the new
private railway companies are not fully independent. Also, the report
includes a number of tables and comparisons in international
perspective:
http://www.nber.org/books/ease12/mizutani-nakamura12-28-01.pdf
In case you do not have Acrobat Reader, please click here to access
the HTML version:
://www.google.de/search?q=cache:DIFHxOedhhcC:www.nber.org/books/ease12/mizutani-nakamura12-28-01.pdf+jnr+japanese+railway+privatized+&hl=de&ie=UTF-8
The Japanese Experience with Railway Restructuring, by Fumitoshi
Mizutani and Kiyoshi Nakamura, 2001.

Mario B. Lamberte of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies
has written a comment on the paper of Fumitoshi Mizutani and Kiyoshi
Nakamura, providing valuable advice for the reader and additional
information and implications:
http://www.nber.org/books/ease12/lamberte10-25-01a.pdf
In case you do not have Acrobat Reader, please click here to access
the HTML version:
://www.google.de/search?q=cache:yid8FzwKdR4C:www.nber.org/books/ease12/lamberte10-25-01a.pdf+jnr+japanese+railway+privatized+&hl=de&ie=UTF-8
Comments on the Paper of Fumitoshi Mizutani and Kiyoshi Nakamura "The
Japanese Experience with Railway Restructuring", by Mario B. Lamberte,
2001.

Search terms used:
jnr japanese railway privatized:
://www.google.de/search?q=jnr+japanese+railway+privatized+&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF8&hl=de&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=

Hope this was the information you were looking for!
Regards,
Scriptor

Thanks for info.  Sorry for the long delay!