Photo/Illutration Construction work on the Chuo Expressway in November 2022 (Hirotaka Kojo)

The infrastructure ministry plans to continue collecting expressway tolls for an additional 50 years to 2115 to secure sufficient funds to manage and repair aging routes.

The ministry is expected to submit a related bill to the ordinary Diet session, which will open on Jan. 23.

When Japan Highway Public Corp. was split up and privatized in 2005, the central government announced a policy to collect tolls until 2050 to cover the construction costs--and to make the expressways toll-free afterward.

But in 2012, gigantic concrete ceiling panels collapse in the Sasago Tunnel on the Chuo Expressway in Otsuki, Yamanashi Prefecture, killing nine people.

The accident prompted emergency safety checks on the nation’s infrastructure, and the ministry secured a huge sum to reinforce aging roads around Japan.

The ministry extended the 2050 deadline on toll collection to 2065.

Since then, the ministry has learned that large-scale renewal, maintenance and repairs are needed at many more locations. An expert panel set up by the ministry recommended the further extension of the toll deadline.

Under the new policy, expressway-management companies will periodically develop business plans, which the ministry will evaluate to determine the costs of renewal, maintenance and repairs.

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The Asahi Shimbun

According to a senior ministry official, raising tolls and increasing taxes were options to secure the funds needed to manage the aging expressways.

But the official said the ministry concluded that motorists themselves should cover the costs.

“It is reasonable for the beneficiaries, including future generations, to shoulder the investment in order to use the roads for a long time,” the official said.

The ministry will also use the collected tolls for new investments, such as expanding certain roads from two lanes to four lanes.

However, traffic volume is expected to decrease as the population shrinks. Therefore, the period for collecting tolls should be prolonged, the official said.

According to an estimate made by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan’s population is expected to drop to 88 million in 2065, and plunge further to about 50 million in 2115.

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