Highway bus services have developed along with the construction of expressways, and 177 transit operators in totalprovide services along 1,592 routes to 83.46 million users in March 2003. One of the priority projects of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is revitalizing bus services, and so the bus location system is being actively implemented.
In February 2005, an experiment was conducted to verify the benefits to users and identify technical issues based on the advice by the Council on Standard Data Format Necessary for Comprehensive Bus Information System. A standard data format for the comprehensive bus information system is also actively being investigated. Probe data collected by bus location systems will also be used for advanced road management,such as for assessing economic losses caused by congestion.