Abstract: During 115 years since the Japanese state-owned railway came into being, the Japanese government has argued over such problems as whether narrow-gauge or broad-gauge railway is adopted, investment problem concerning whether building is dominated or transformation is dominated, whether the post-war freight is reasonable, and how to position the railway in the comprehensive communication system, of which the problem concerning state-owned or people's operation form has been the biggest policy problem through the history of the Japanese state-owned railway.This paper discusses the problem so as to reveal its inherent relation of change.