The is a national

expressway Expressway may refer to: * Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic. * Limited-access road, a lower grade of highway or arterial road. *Expressway, the fictional s ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is owned and operated by

East Nippon Expressway Company The , abbreviated as , is one of the main operators of expressways and toll roads in Japan. It is headquartered in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company was established on October 1, 2005 as a result of the privatization of Japan Highway Pub ...

Overview

Tokyo Gaikan Expressway and Misato junction

The name Gaikan refers to the route's status as an outer ring road (

beltway A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...

) for

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. The expressway is also referred to simply as Gaikan for short. It is the second of three expressway ring routes in the greater Tokyo area: the innermost is the

Central Circular Route The , signed as Route C2, is one of the routes of the Shuto Expressway system serving the central part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The route is a circumferential highway running through the outer wards of Tokyo. The route is the middle of fou ...

, then the Gaikan, and the outermost is the

Ken-Ō Expressway The , or , is a partially completed ticket system toll expressway in Japan. It is owned and operated by the Central Nippon Expressway Company and East Nippon Expressway Company. In conjunction with the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line and the Bayshore Route ...

. The

Inner Circular Route The , signed as Route C1, is one of the routes of the Shuto Expressway system serving the central part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The route is a complete loop around the central Tokyo wards of Chiyoda, Chūō, and Minato, with a total length ...

of the

Shuto Expressway is a network of toll expressways in the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. It is operated and maintained by the . Most routes are grade-separated (elevated roads or tunnels) and central routes have many sharp curves and multi-lane merges that requi ...

is apparently not considered a true ring road, as the alternate Japanese name of the Ken-Ō Expressway (English name is Metropolitan Inter-City Expressway) is 三環状道路, with the first character meaning 'three' not 'four.' A section of the expressway on the northern side of the Tokyo area was the first to open to traffic (

Ōizumi Junction is a road Interchange (road), interchange located in Nerima, Tokyo, Japan. Expressway *East Nippon Expressway Company ** ** Adjacent Interchanges

, - , colspan=5 style="text-align:center;" , East Expressway Company Roads in Tok ...

to Misato-minami Interchange). Most of this section is an elevated roadway built on the median of National Route 298 with curved windbreaks on both sides. Most of the roadway has two lanes in each direction (three lanes from Ōizumi Junction to Wakō-kita Interchange). The eastern section from Misato to Ichikawa was opened to the public on 2 June 2018, three years after schedule. The western section from Izumi to the Chuo expressway is under construction, while the final section linking to the Tomei expressway is still at the planning stage. The western section will pass through the densely populated suburbs of western Tokyo; large parts of it will consist of tunnels constructed at least 40 m underground (

deep underground is a Japanese concept for the public use of deep underground, enabled by a 2001 law. It was first thought of in the late 1980s as Japan faced ever-increasing land values in the economic bubble, to allow the use of heretofore-unused deep undergrou ...

). The toll for a regular passenger car is currently 500 yen regardless of the distance travelled. Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) is accepted.

List of interchanges and features

* PA -

parking area A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

, TB -

toll gate Toll Gate or Tollgate may refer to: * Toll gate, a barrier across a toll road or toll bridge that is lifted when the toll is paid Entertainment * "Tollgate" (Hale single) * ''The Toll-Gate'', a 1954 novel by Georgette Heyer * ''The Toll Gate'', ...

Gallery

Image:Tokyo_Gaikan_Expressway_and_Japanese_national_route_298.jpg, Gaikan above Route 298 Image:Sakitama_bridge,_Saitama,_Japan.jpg, Sakitama Bridge Image:Tokyo_Gaikan_Expressway_and_Tohoku_Shinkansen.jpg, Gaikan passing under

Tōhoku Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed Shinkansen rail line, connecting Tokyo with Aomori in Aomori Prefecture in a route length of , making it Japan's longest Shinkansen line. It runs through the more sparsely populated Tōhoku region of Japan's main is ...

Image:Bijogi-Jct-2005 02 18.jpg, Traffic lights at Bijogi JCT

References

External links

East Nippon Expressway Company

{{coord missing, Japan Expressways in Japan Proposed roads in Japan Ring roads in Japan Roads in Chiba Prefecture Roads in Saitama Prefecture Roads in Tokyo 1992 establishments in Japan