The market for bus services has Continuouslly decreased since the late 1960s, particularly in hilly and mountainous areas. Central governments have tried to increase the financial support for local bus line in deficit until the 1990s. However, central government policy changed in the mid-1990s, and subsidies were decreased. This resulted in planning a larger financial burden on local governments. Furthermore, central government was providing a new subvention to stimulate the restructuring of public transportation services for municipalities in the mid-2000s. The financial support has now changed.

As stated above, the maintenance role of central governments is less active than it was before, and that of the local governments is now more important. In terms of regional policy, many prefectures now provide their financial supprts for the maintenance of and restructuring of these services. This paper examines maintenance policies amongst these prefectures are examined. Generally, these policies survive the 2000s. However, contents of the policies also have been diversification and complexity.