Japan to Continue Expressway Toll Collection until 2115

Tokyo, Jan. 16 (Jiji Press)--Japan's transport ministry plans to extend the toll collection period for expressways across the country by 50 years until 2115, in order to secure funds for expressway renovation work, according to informed sources.

The ministry will submit a related bill during an ordinary session of the Diet, the country's parliament, to be convened on Jan. 23, the sources said.

While bridges, tunnels and other expressway facilities are aging, a fall in expressway toll revenue is seen as inevitable due to the country's declining population.

In principle, roads are built with taxpayer money and opened to the public free of charge. As an exception, however, tolls are collected on expressways to repay debts for the early development of a nationwide expressway network.

The debts were planned to be repaid by 2050, as of the privatization of highway public corporations in 2005.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]