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Going broke driving in Japan.

K

Kyoto Returnee

Sempai
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Why are the blasted highways In Japan so expensive?

Tolls all along the way..

I also felt like being on the highways was paramount to being on a racing car circuit with cameras spying all along the way..

Have you noticed this, or was this just the area I was travelling?

You can drive around the whole country of Australia free of charge. No tolls to pay as that comes out of our taxes..

Do Japanese pay road taxes?

I certainly didn't feel "free" whislt travelling in Japan..
 
One of my Japanese colleagues told me that the users pay for it. Here in the US we have a mix of free and toll highways, and future roadways will likely be mostly toll. Rather than tax everyone, why not just impose fees on those that actually use them? It's an unfair tax if you don't directly use them.

I've never rented a car in Japan in the many times I've been there, and the cost of the tolls is one reason.
 
I like that theory Tiger..

Definitely a good way to go charging the users only, but I am now remembering the reasons in Japan are because possibly the highways are actually owned by individual companies..

Can anyone else shed some light on this?
 
I remember the first time I rode on the highways, from Narita to a place near Chiba, and balked at the toll when we took the exit. The freeways anything but "free" in Japan!

Just another reason I wouldn't want a car, except if I were out in the boonies.
 
We don't have tolls in Wisconsin, but when we drive to our favorite Japanese grocery in Illinois we pay a few tolls. They aren't expensive. I think one is about $1.25 and then there are two or so more that are .80 cents or so. There seems to be quite a few miles between the tolls; I noticed in Japan that you seem to have to pay a lot more often, like the tolls are close together so you aren't getting much driving for the money. Just how much are the tolls? My husbands boss drives us around and he has something in his car that automatically pay the tolls, so I never see what they cost.
 
A person who doesn't drive still makes use of the roads.
He may use buses or taxis.
He may even use a bicycle.
He may order things to be shipped to his home or work by truck.
Goods he buys/uses in supermarkets, hardware stores, barbershops, etc. all can be delivered by car or truck.
His police, fire, and ambulance services all use the roads, and it is better for them and you if the roads are maintained in good condition.
He also is likely to have his mail delivered by a road vehicle.

Also, you can't really impose separate road taxes, can you? Tax is tax, and how the governments decide to divide it for various uses is up to them.

Goldiegirl,
Your husband probably has an ETC account, which permits faster passage through tollgates here. You should ask him how much he pays per month.

According to this forum report, the cost for tollway use (which probably varies according to prefecture, IMO) is 24.6 yen/km for cars and 19.69 yen/km for motorcycles and light vehicles. http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+11712
The forum discussion also brings up this Japanese site.
年会費無料で選ぶおすすめETCカード｜一番お得で便利なETCカードを徹底比較｜クレコミ｜クレジットカードの口コミ比較情報サイト

Wikipedia has this to say about tolls on expressways, too, with a nice table of how much it costs per km or mile depending on which type of vehicle you use.


According to Wikipedia toll collecting companies are private, supposedly "to encourage competition and decrease tolls". Transport in Japan - Wikipedia
But the other Wiki link above shows who owns which expressways.
 
If I want to go to the Kansai area, I have the choice of paying about 6000 yen in tolls each way, or a bus for about 6500 yen round trip. The only route connecting eastern Shikoku to Honshu is an expensive toll road. There is no train. It's absurd.
 
JimmySeal said:
If I want to go to the Kansai area, I have the choice of paying about 6000 yen in tolls each way, or a bus for about 6500 yen round trip. The only route connecting eastern Shikoku to Honshu is an expensive toll road. There is no train. It's absurd.
Click to expand...

Dito!

Crazy hey Jimmy:eek2:

If I remember correctly it cost us around 48,000 Yen from Kyoto to Wakayam return driving..

I think we made a boo-boo and actually exited at the wrong spot, which meant we had to somehow turn around near Osaka and get back on the highway..

That's an expensive mistake:23:

In Australia, we are free to roam on the open roads, no gates or cameras, but definitely plenty of free coffee stops along the way
 
You always have the alternative of driving on the 一般道 instead of the expressways, you know.
 
I can't read the ﾋ?ｪ窶敕岩?慊ｹ but I'm guessing you are saying the small local streets.

I asked my wife about this and she said it would take forever to get anywhere due to the slow speeds..

Good choice though and I'm sure you know the secrets of the trade;-)
 
Kyoto Returnee said:
I asked my wife about this and she said it would take forever to get anywhere due to the slow speeds..
Click to expand...
That and the multitudious traffic lights! I remember that when I lived in Yamaguchi, I used to drive to Kyushu on a fairly regular basis. Just once, I decided that I wanted to take the tunnel instead of the bridge linking the two islands. My impression can be summed up in two words:

Never again.

What normally would have been over in a flash took FOREVER to do due to the plethora of traffic lights on the way to the tunnel. The best thing about the expressway is that there are no traffic lights stopping you every couple hundred meters or so (or less!).
 
Kyoto Returnee, "48,000 Yen from Kyoto to Wakayama return driving.. " is just impossible.

This web site - 地図・ルート検索 - NAVITIME - gives a price of 3100 yen for a 1-way journey from Kyoto to Wakayama, which corresponds to what I experimented in the area.

Many might find the highway toll expensive. But even though, highways are usually packed and often traffic jam occurs. Imagine what would happen if highway was cheaper... or free!!

sanji
 
Pay for the service/convenience of tollways or suffer the consequences of slower streets or find public transportation. It's up to you.
 
I would willingly re-mortgage my house and take a second job just to be able to afford the pleasure of paying Japanese highway tolls.

Seriously though, they keep the 'riff-raff' (definition - ELT with a 12 year-old Toyota Starlet too tight-fisted to cough up 3000 yen in toll charges from Nagano-ken to Nagoya despite a 30 man/month salary) off the expressways and leave them relatively traffic-free for family men like myself for whom the car IS the cheapest method of transport to most places. I say: "let them take the R153 mountain road in winter - one of the most dangerous routes in Japan - I'll stick to my safe, expensive Chuo Expressway and be on my way home before they've even sat down for lunch at Sizzlers."

Could you imagine the logistics nightmare if the roads were free? I use takkyubin services almost daily and when I can promise a customer next-day delivery of a new desktop computer & display for under 2500 yen that helps generate more business.

The country is one huge chunk of rock and yet it has modern road network. I've taught several old men who worked on the Chuo Expressway and in particular the Ena Tunnel. The project was immense. By comparison construction of the M1 in the UK was a stroll in the country - admittedly with a bloody big bulldozer and a briefcase full of compulsory purchase orders.


--
 
Mike Cash said:
You always have the alternative of driving on the 一般道 instead of the expressways, you know.
Click to expand...
There is no 一般道 from Shikoku to Honshu. I guess I could get off of the expressway, spend 2 hours winding across Awaji, and get back on the expressway to leave it, but those ridiculously expensive bridges are the costliest part of the trip anyway.

mr.sumo.snr said:
Seriously though, they keep the 'riff-raff' off the expressways
Click to expand...
People aren't riff-raff just because they have more important uses for their money than to spend 1% of their monthly salary (before deductions) just to use a road. Try to be less of an elitist. Your post is dripping with hypocrisy.
 
Last edited:
Hi,

I pretty much agree that high road tolls in Japan are useful. If it were cheaper, too many people would drive on them, it would become a huge traffic jam, and so would become useless.

We also have toll roads in France (all our motorways are), and I believe they are around 1/3 to half of Japanese prices. French motorways were also cheaper to build.

Anyways, even with the toll price, I believe driving in Japan is cheaper than train for a family, and even sometimes for a couple.
 
Four years ago, I was part of a tour group in Japan and I was surprised at how many stops our buses had to make at toll stations just going from Kyoto to Osaka. Whether you're using public transportation or driving your own car, there's no getting around paying.
 
Yeah, driving in Japan is both:

1) insanely expensive; and
2) insanely complicated

For those reasons I never even considered getting a car during my 5 years in Japan.

I am moving back to Japan this October and my father in law offered to give us his car for the year while we are there. Its still got about 6 months on its shaken, but I turned it down....the cost of just being able to use it would totally outweigh any benefit.

I don't really see the point of complaining if you have access to the trains/buses, which are second to none in Japan. Of course if you've got kids I can see the need for a car, but for those of us sans-children and in good health they are really a useless luxury in Japan.
 
I heard there is a pending legislation which makes the tolls collected by motorists would be used for road/highway-related matters only, because some politicians want to pool toll revenues to the general tax revenue for whatever use the politicians want to spend on. Japan is not a good country to enjoy driving as it is too small. I like driving and this part of Japan really disappoints me and makes me want to move back to USA.
 
Oh man, I have three cars and travell regularly on the toll ways. They sure are expensive but it is a fact of life here. I have grief with ﾂ"ﾅｽﾃ版椎ｸﾂ" (shaken) as that costs about $1500 each time.

You could always do what mike said, you will get to see more of the country side.
 
senseiman said:
Yeah, driving in Japan is both:

1) insanely expensive; and
2) insanely complicated
Click to expand...

Without buying a car, you easily can enjoy driving in Japan.

Renting a small car, including all insurances, will cost you about 8000 yen for a day. Gas is cheaper than in Europe (although more expensive than in the US), and the only think that add to the total is the highway cost, which is not coming cheap. Still, you can enjoy a day-trip to Gunma-ken or Tochigi-ken, to see nice temples, soak in onsen, ski, hike or anything you want for typically 16000-18000 yen. If you are 2 (or even better, 3 or 4), this is always cheaper than the shinkansen option, plus you have the possibility to go to really remote areas.

Trues, the rail network is nice, but as soon as you are out of the big cities, you often have 1 (slow) train every hour or so.

I wouldn't buy a car, but I rent once/twice a month a car, and it is really a good deal if you like traveling...

sanji
 

Yes, I can see how renting a car would be quite reasonable on occasion. I suppose my comments relate more to car ownership rather than driving per se.
 

I don't agree:

A cyclist requires only a fraction of the road space a car or truck does, and causes imperceptible amounts of 'wear and tear' to the road surface.

An individual making use of the public transportation would be paying the tolls as this would form part of the service fee.

Same goes for package/post transportation services.


Furthermore, a taxation system (such as tolls) to raise taxes from those who use a system to benefit them does make sense - no taxation without representation sound familiar?
Why should someone like me (who walks almost exclusively as I live in Auckland's CBD) pay for motorways that I'll never frequent? It's like asking your neighbour to constantly pay for part of your groceries as they may at some point and time ask to borrow a cup of sugar.
 
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