EDITORIAL: Lifting expressway tolls

The transport ministry has announced plans to abolish tolls on some expressways from around June. While it is good news to users, the policy raises a host of problems. Since the ministry has not properly addressed the issue, we feel we cannot support the policy.

The abolition of expressway tolls was one of the pillars of the Democratic Party of Japan's campaign manifesto for the Lower House election last August. As a first step, it plans to abolish tolls on 50 sections of 37 expressways encompassing 1,626 kilometers, or 18 percent of all expressways across Japan, as "a social experiment."

Sumio Mabuchi, senior vice minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, who is in charge of the program, stressed its advantages in a news conference: "We selected routes that are believed to contribute to local communities. We expect the plan to bring about positive economic effects to a certain degree."

This is good news for drivers. The program is expected to work in favor of tourist facilities in relevant areas. However, there are positive and negative sides to the policy. The fact that many people oppose it, as shown by public opinion polls, illustrates there is widespread concern about its negative impact.

Basically, the abolition of expressway tolls promotes car use and flies in the face of measures to combat global warming, another key policy issue of the administration headed by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

For one thing, the policy will lead to a rise in carbon dioxide emissions by privately owned cars. But that is not all.

It will also affect the operation of public transportation systems such as railways, bus services and ferries that compete with cars. Properly speaking, such means of public transportation must be strengthened as part of anti-global warming measures but instead, the policy would weigh heavily on them.

It could have a major impact on local public transportation systems, whose survival is at stake. It could also deprive local residents of their means of transportation. In particular, this would affect students and elderly people.

For example, the Shikoku Railway Co., which is the smallest among all JR companies, has been making painful efforts to cut costs, including electricity use, to maintain routes.

If expressway tolls are abolished, "Our efforts up to now would come to naught," said Kiyohiro Matsuda, the JR Shikoku president.

Since tolls would be abolished on some portions of the Matsuyama and Kochi expressways with which the railway competes, there inevitably will be a serious impact.

The fact that huge amounts of money would have to be injected on a regular basis is also a big problem, given the financial difficulties that prevail.

The abolition of expressway tolls in fiscal 2010 will require 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) for the government to offset the revenue loss.

The administration will study the impact of its experiment, which calls for scrapping tolls on expressways across the nation as a general rule with the exception of a number of routes, including the Shuto and Hanshin expressways, in fiscal 2012. But for that, annual revenues of up to 1.8 trillion yen ($20 billion) would be needed.

Although the government claims its policy will have a positive economic effect, and while communities along expressways may thrive, those along conventional roads could lose business.

We believe there are more important areas that the Hatoyama administration could lavish funds on; for example, strengthening social security and education.

Since the government suffers from a serious budget deficit, we believe it should re-examine whether it really needs to abolish expressway tolls.

We also urge the government to take into consideration the growing trend in the United States and among countries in Europe, where expressways are free, to introduce tolls to protect the environment.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 4