“I'd just drive around it”--which means an extra 50 miles. Highway officials say the reason for high tolls is simple: It takes money to build on Japan's expensive, mountainous, earthquake-prone terrain. And reliance on loans instead of taxes means the money has to be paid back, with interest.

Tolls in Japan are among the most expensive in the world because the expressway system was built using a "Loan-and-Repay" model rather than being funded primarily by general taxation. When the highways were constructed post-WWII, the Japanese government took out massive loans with the promise that tolls would be used to pay back the debt and cover the high costs of maintenance. Because Japan’s geography is incredibly mountainous, the expressways are a marvel of engineering, requiring an endless series of tunnels and bridges which are vastly more expensive to maintain than flat roads. Furthermore, the expressways were privatized in 2005 into the NEXCO companies (East, Central, and West Japan), which must operate as profitable entities. In 2026, a trip from Tokyo to Osaka can cost over ¥12,000 (approx. $80) in tolls alone. To mitigate these costs, the "gold standard" for residents and tourists is to use an ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) card, which provides significant "off-peak" and weekend discounts, though the base rates remain a significant financial hurdle for long-distance drivers.