History of Japanese Roads

2. Age of Modernization
(from Meiji Restoration to 1950s)

This color print is a depiction of Ginza Street in Tokyo in the Meiji Period, bustling with horse-drawn street car an carriage traffic. The age of vehicle traffic arrived in Japan belatedly.

In the Meiji Era(1868~1912), railway technology was imported from Europe. During the same period, efforts to modernize roads was started . Unlike China and Europe, however, Japan did not have a tradition of carriage traffic during the Middle Ages. It was impossible to transform the ancient roads designed strictly for the passage of people and horses into modern roads in a single step. Roads, which had been beautifully maintained in terms of both scenery and structure until the Meiji Era, started to deteriorate under the burden of more modern, horse-drawn and human-powered vehicles (rickshaws). Arthur Crow, who visited Japan in 1881, wrote his observation as follows in Highways and Byeways in Japan,
"The Tokaido is in a dreadfully bad state, with ruts and holes large enough almost to swallow a cart, and yet traffic is very large, both in horse and man-power vehicles."
The reason for the lack of road improvement was the decision by the Meiji government to give rail and sea transport top priority in the development of transportation systems. This decision was influenced by a strong desire to catch up with the advanced nations of the West as quickly as possible. Because of this, it was not until the post-World War II period that Japanese roads were truly modernized. In 1945, Japan was defeated, and the nation lay in ruins. In order to speed the recovery of the nation and society, full-scale road improvements were commenced together with the reconstruction of the railway network.

3. Age of High Efficiency Networks
(from 1950s ~ today)

In 1950's, the level of road development was still very low in Japan. After a rainstorm, it was not a rare sight to see cars stuck in the muddy roads.

Automobiles enjoyed remarkable popularity as the economy recovered and the standard of living improved. At the end of World War II, the number of motor vehicles stood at 130,000 vehicles. By 1951, the total reached 500,000 vehicles, then doubled to one million in 1953, and doubled again to two million in 1957. The Age of Motorization had arrived in Japan; however, Ralph J. Watkins, an economist invited by the Japanese government to conduct research for the Meishin Expressway wrote in the report in 1956,
"The roads of Japan are incredibly bad. No other industrial nation has so completely neglected its highway system."
He went on to point out that the 1st 5-year Road Improvement Program which had started only two years earlier in 1954 had to be at least tripled in scale.
The road conditions in those days were indeed terrible. Even among first-class national highways, which comprise the most essential trunk road network, only 23% of the total were paved. Only two-thirds of National Highway Route 1 which links Tokyo with Osaka was paved. The Japanese government accepted Mr. Watkins's proposals and immediately put them into practice.
Thus, road improvement in Japan moved into high gear , propelling the nation into the high economic growth era in later years. However, those expressways were not built only with a priority on economic efficiency. Scenic areas were selected for service areas in these highways, and very detailed planting of median strips was adopted. Perhaps this can be regarded as a manifestation of the Japanese spirit of road construction passed down from ancient times: placement of value on scenery and the natural environment , and efforts to maintain roads based on an awareness of roads as the public property of the state.

The first expressway in Japan was the Meishin Expressway which opened in 1963. Road construction traditions from ancient Japan were incorporated in the well-cared landscaping of median strips and the selection of sites with beautiful scenery for the location of service areas. Japan has entered the full-fledged age of expressways. The length of expressways is steady increasing year by year.

4. Improving the Roads of 21st Century
(The Age of a Safe and Comfortable Smart Way)

Considering the role of roads in 19th and 20th century, the question was asked. The question is "How do we correspond with industrial civilization which bring us rich and large consuming mass society represented by cars? "
And now, at the end of 20th century and the beginning of next century, we have to answer another question. That is "How do we correspond with the negative legacy---motor accidents, congestions and air pollution, which were brought by traffic progress in 20th century?" Dissolving the negative legacy and creating new values are the luggage we have to hold to the future. And, maybe, the answer would be exist in the telecommunication technology with remarkable progress. This new technology is beginning to show the possibility to unite human, road and car. And also the possibility to make cars to safe and comfortable space.
In telecommunication society, the road is defined as the social space, and also cars which can be called "isolated space" could be the space with safe and comfort as well as other social space.
For these transitions, the vehicle which was once called "car" in 20th century would be metamorphosed into the contrivance for transportation in 21st century.
At that time, the road would evolve from the space for traffic into the one for composing new fundamental which can be described as the super-infrastructure.
The new road for dissolving the problems road in 20th century held, creating new industries and employments which are suitable for the telecommunication society, useful for the ecological improvement and making peoples lives safe and vital. These are the goals of the New 5-year Road Improvement and Management Program.

New traffic systems utilizing high technology are under development. The picture shows how the experiment of Advanced Cruise-Assist Highway System(AHS) is made.

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Road Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Japan