Automobiles and Roads

Although Japan did develop her own first domestically produced gasoline-powered vehicle, Takuri, as early as 1907, imported vehicles played the predominant role in Japan up to the start of the Pacific War. And then, only a minute proportion of transportation had actually been handled by automobiles. It was only in the postwar period of advanced economic growth that automobiles came into widespread use. The number of vehicles owned by ordinary households began to surge as of 1965.

However, the provision of roads was unable to keep pace with this dramatic surge in the development of automobile transport, which resulted in a steady increase in traffic congestion and road accidents. Not until the completion of the Meishin Expressway (between Nagoya and Kobe) and the Tomei Expressway (between Tokyo and Nagoya) in 1963 and 1969 respectively, was Japan first provided with complete intercity roadways devoted to automobiles, and this paved the way for the full-scale development of transportation by truck. Recent years have seen the creation of a road network that links the islands of the Japanese Archipelago, a notable example of which is the Seto Ohashi (Bridge of linking Honshu-island and Shikoku-island).