in
Japan are roads usually planned, numbered and maintained by the government of the respective
prefecture (-to, -dō, -fu or -ken), independent of other prefectures – as opposed to
national roads
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
(kokudō), which in legal terms include
national expressways (kōsoku jidōsha kokudō), and
municipal
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...
roads (
uhichōsondō). Where a national or prefectural road runs through the territory of a
designated major city, the city government assumes part of the responsibility for these roads. By length, 10.7 % of public roads in Japan were prefectural roads as of 2011; by usage, they carried more than 30% of all traffic volume on public roads as of 2007.
[MLIT ''(Kokudo-kōtsū-shō)'', Road bureau ''(dōro-kyoku)'']
Road definition & classification
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Prefectural roads are marked with a blue hexagon, with the number centered. Most usually end at another prefectural road, or national route, or occasionally at or very close to a Japan Railway station.
If a prefectural road does cross into another prefecture, even if for a few hundred feet, its number is not reused by the prefecture it crosses into. Numbers are used only once in each prefecture, regardless of where the road begins or ends. However, there are some major roads running through several prefectures which have the same number in all prefectures involved. For example, the "Sano-Koga line" (''Sano-Koga-sen'', 佐野古河線) that connects Sano city in Tochigi prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Tochigi Prefecture has a population of 1,943,886 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,408 km2 (2,474 sq mi). Tochigi Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the nort ...
and Koga city in Ibaraki prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, Tochigi Prefectur ...
is continually designated as prefectural road 9 in all four prefectures it runs through, namely Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama and Ibaraki.
Some prefectural roads will also at times run for a short distance concurrent with a national route, but it is more common to see this with other prefectural roads.
Numbers used for national routes that run through a prefecture are often duplicated by prefectural routes but a national route and a prefectural route bearing the same number rarely if ever meet or cross each other.
See also
* National highways of Japan
* Expressways of Japan
The of Japan make up a large network of controlled-access toll expressways.
History
Following World War II, Japan's economic revival led to a massive increase in personal automobile use. However the existing road system was inadequate ...
References
External links
* MLIT
''dōro-kyoku'' ("Road Bureau")
parts in English
{{Japan-road-stub
*Road