January 6, 2013

The ministry of land and infrastructure on January 5 decided to implement a policy to provide government subsidies for inspection, repairs, and maintenance of local roads as a supplementary budget of this fiscal year ending March 31.

The Japanese Communist Party has been pressing the government to prioritize quake-resistant renovation works for aging roads, tunnels, and bridges, long prior to a tunnel accident killing nine people late last year.

In the March Diet deliberations on the 2012 budget draft, JCP member of the House of Representatives Kokuta Keiji demanded a shift in road policy, saying, “The government should focus on funding to operate, maintain, and improve the existing roads, not on construction of new roads.”

Japan has about 1.21 million kilometers of roads in total. Of them, about 0.13 million kilometers are prefecture-owned and 1.02 million kilometers are municipality-owned roads, accounting for 95% of all roads in Japan.

Severe financial constraints in prefectures and municipalities are causing many local roads to be left poorly-maintained.