Top all-time · #13606
S.Y. Lee
Personal blog · seungylee14.substack.compoliticshistory
S.Y. Lee writes S(ubstack)-Bahn, a personal blog at seungylee14.substack.com about politics and history. Since 2022, 5 different Hacker News readers have linked it 7 times, most often “The Death and Privatization of Japanese National Railways (Part 1, 1949-1982)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-17, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Substack writing on Japanese rail, linked for an in-depth account of how the national railway was split into privately operated JR companies. Commenters cite it as deeper than a Bloomberg story on the topic.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 1 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
deep dives into trains, transit and politics (usually outside US). Click to read S(ubstack)-Bahn, by S.Y. Lee,
Most-linked posts?
- The Death and Privatization of Japanese National Railways (Part 1, 1949-1982)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-11-28
What Hacker News says?
They are privately operated since the 80s, but the vast majority of their initial development was government funded. As far as I understand the privatized companies are monopolies-- these companies were formed from the JNR by geographic area served (hence "JR East", "JR West" etc.) The bloomberg story is really light on details for why and how the privatization occurred; for a much more in-depth view, see S.Y. Lee's…
Comment linking /p/the-death-and-privatization-of-japanese
on “Tokyo by Train (2016) [video]”Submitted How Japan saved Tokyo's rail network from collapse (part 1, 1945-1982) as a story · 194 points
HN discussionSubmitted How BART on the Golden Gate Bridge died: A new history as a story · 134 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lessons from Seoul's controversial privatized subway line as a story · 107 points
HN discussionSubmitted Seoul Metro's Ugly War with Disabled Protesters Enters Its Third Year as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Death and Privatization of Japanese National Railways (Part 1, 1949-1982) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted How Japan Saved Tokyo's Rail Network from Collapse (Part 2, 1982-Now) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion