Like many elderly people in Japan, an 83-year-old woman living in the Omiyadai district of Chiba's Wakaba Ward relies on a local bus service to get around.

She catches a bus three times a week that connects her neighborhood and JR Kamatori Station to visit a fitness club and go shopping. 

The woman's Tokyo bedroom community saw a sharp increase in the number of homes in the 1960s, with the nearest train station located about three kilometers from the district.

The fixed-route bus service had operated on a limited schedule as it was struggling to make a profit and suffering from a driver shortage.

But in October, the number of services was reduced by almost half to just two round trips a day. 

"With the number of buses reduced, I can't go home if I miss the bus," the woman said in disappointment.

It takes an hour to walk to the station from her home.

Her 90-year-old husband whom she lives with returned his driver's license three years ago.

She can take another bus to go to Chiba Station in 30 minutes, but it is still a high hurdle for the elderly.

"When there are no bus services, (the district) will become isolated even further," she added. "I wonder what will become of our community transportation network. I'm worried."

Reducing and eliminating fixed-route bus services had been seen as a problem plaguing outlying regions.

But the same problem is also creeping into urban areas.

Many local routes are operated by private companies that have to consider profitability while providing public transportation.

Kokusai Kogyo Co., which operates fixed-route bus services in Tokyo and neighboring Saitama Prefecture, reduced the number of services on routes from and to Ikebukuro, Takashimadaira and Urawa stations.

The company also moved up the departure times of the final buses of the day from September to October, in addition to making other adjustments.

For example, the operator moved up the departure times of the last buses heading out to areas with many large-scale public housing complexes by an hour.

According to the transport ministry's Kanto District Transport Bureau, which oversees Tokyo and seven prefectures, it has received notifications from Kokusai Kogyo and five other companies since the last fiscal year that they were terminating some of their fixed-route services.

The situation is similar in the regions other than the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Kongo Jidosha Co., which operates fixed-route bus lines in Tondabayashi in Osaka Prefecture and other areas, announced in September that it will halt all bus operations on Dec. 20.

Nishi-Nippon Railroad Co., which has one of Japan's largest numbers of buses, or about 2,700, reduced the number of services on 32 routes and eliminated one route in Fukuoka and Kita-Kyushu since October due to a chronic driver shortage.

The company has reduced the number of services except for peak hours also in the Fukuoka district, which is home to many urban areas.

On a weekday night in October, a 58-year-old corporate employee working in Fukuoka missed the last bus and had to walk 30 minutes to his home.

"It may affect restaurants that are bustling with diners again after the COVID-19 pandemic," he said of the reduction in service. 

DIRE SHORTAGES OF DRIVERS

Ritz MC Inc., a staffing firm for the bus industry, worked with bus companies to organize job fairs in Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo between September and October.

A total of 221 companies from Tokyo and 28 prefectures across the country participated in the events, which were attended by 706 job-seekers.

Driver shortages are being seen across the nation.

"Some municipal governments use subsidies intended for those who move in from other areas to pay extra salaries to bus drivers," said Ritz MC President Mie Nakashima.

The number of bus drivers nationwide is 111,000.

According to the Nihon Bus Association, the figure is expected to gradually decrease to 93,000 in 2030.

The industry is also facing the so-called "2024 problem," which involves caps on overtime work for drivers taking effect in April next year.

The bus industry is believed to have been short of 7,000 drivers as of 2022, but the shortage is expected to worsen to 36,000 in 2030.

The Tokyo metropolitan area is no exception.

The number of applicants for bus driver jobs at Tokyu Bus Corp. has been reduced by almost half from about six years ago, the company reported.

With Tokyo having a high minimum wage at 1,113 yen ($7.60) per hour in fiscal 2023, "that is all the more reason why manpower is flowing into other industries," a representative said.

According to the transport ministry's white paper on transportation policy, the average age of bus drivers is 53.4 years, about 10 years older than the industry average of 43.7 years.

With women accounting for only 1.7 percent of drivers, the industry continues to rely on middle-aged and older male drivers.

Even under such circumstances, the transport ministry has found no drastic solutions.

It has merely sped the process for handling applications from bus operators for fare hikes to generate sources for wage increases, and help them pay the cost of obtaining a special Class 2 driver's license required for bus drivers.

According to Kiyohito Utsunomiya, a Kansai University professor specializing in transport economics, fixed-route bus services are publicly operated in urban areas in the United States, while private companies sign contracts with municipalities through competitive bidding to operate them in Europe in most cases.

"It's nonsense to see the number of bus routes increase or decrease depending on profitability when they serve as public transportation in their communities," he said. "We must regard this problem as a turning point for public transportation."

(This article was written by Doni Tani, Yuka Honda, Ryo Ikeda, Natsuki Edogawa and Go Takahashi.)