Govt vision unclear on expressway tolls

Post date: Jun 21, 2011 12:11:46 AM

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110620004200.htm

Masataka Morita and Kazuki Nishihara / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

Although the government scrapped two expressway toll programs Sunday with the aim of generating revenue for restoration programs in areas damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

The 1,000 yen maximum toll on Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays and a toll-free trial on some expressways around the country ended, and a new toll-free system was adopted for victims of the quake and vehicles engaging in disaster relief and restoration efforts, mainly in the severely-hit Tohoku region. The government plans to greatly expand the range of eligible vehicles from around autumn.

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'Only choice'

Traffic jams were seen on expressways throughout the country Sunday, the last day for the "go as far as you like for 1 yen,000" system.

At the Sugo parking area near Sendai on the Tohoku Expressway bound for Aomori, many out-of-prefecture license plates were seen. The parking area was crowded with traveling families.

Akihiro Yoshimiya, 40, from Fukui, and his family went to Yamagata Prefecture for "cherry hunting" on a two-day trip.

"The government had no choice but to cancel the system. I hope [the revenue from tolls] will be used constructively in restoration efforts from the quake," he said.

The 1,000 yen maximum toll on weekends and national holidays was introduced in March 2009 under the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito coalition government as a measure to stimulate the economy.

To counter that administration, the Democratic Party of Japan advocated a policy of making expressway tolls basically free as one of the planks of its manifesto for the House of Representatives election in August that year. After the DPJ took the reins of the government, it demonstrated a strong will to implement the policy.

In June last year the government started a trial program by making 50 sections of 37 expressways, totalling 1,652 kilometers, toll-free throughout the country.

Before the March 11 quake, a new discount toll system setting a maximum toll of 2,000 yen on weekdays was scheduled to be introduced from April, in addition to the 1,000 yen limit on weekends and holidays.

The government has decided to cancel or postpone these systems because continuing or implementing them carries huge costs.

With this policy revision, 350 billion yen can be counted as part of the revenue for the first fiscal 2011 supplementary budget, which is mainly being used for infrastructure restoration.

Tourist areas and sightseeing spots which have benefitted from the 1,000 yen maximum toll system are puzzled by the sudden cancellation of the policy.

However, few openly oppose the government's decision since the purpose is to fund restoration of the quake-hit areas.

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Travel industry firms confused

The response from the travel industry has been mixed.

According to the Japan Passenger Boats Association, eight routes of seven ferry companies were forced to temporarily or permanently close following the introduction of the 1,000 yen maximum toll and toll-free programs.

Ariake Ferry, which links Kumamoto and Nagasaki, plans to discount passenger car fares by 23 percent on average from Saturday to Aug. 31. The company is trying to lure back customers who have used the discounted expressways instead of ferries.

"The government's policy keeps changing so we wonder what our efforts to lure back customers were for," said Kenichiro Kuribayashi, an executive of Ariake Ferry. "But we'll roll back our fees now."

In the railway industry, East Japan Railway Co. suffered a decline of 9 billion yen and Central Japan Railway Co. 7 billion yen in annual revenue, according to their preliminary estimates.

"Bus companies were also suffering significantly as expressway bus users dropped by about 10 percent, for instance," an official of the Nihon Bus Association said.

The Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, a think tank of Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co., estimates the economic ripple effect of the 1,000 yen maximum toll system and the toll-free trial was nearly 1 trillion yen in fiscal 2009 and 2010.

"They increased the number of people going out and expanded consumption in tourist spots," said Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at the institute.

It is believed that the number of customers making overnight trips decreased, while the number of day trippers increased.

"Therefore, we can't say the DPJ policy revitalized the tourism industry as a whole," an official of a major travel company said.

(Jun. 21, 2011)