The (lit. East Kantō Expressway) is a national expressway in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is owned and operated by East Nippon Expressway Company.

Overview

Officially the expressway is referred to as the Higashi-Kantō Expressway Mito Route. The expressway commences at a junction with the

Shuto Expressway The is a network of Toll road, tolled expressways in the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. It is operated and maintained by the . Most routes are Grade separation, grade separated and have many sharp curves and multi-lane merges that require cauti ...

Bayshore Route The signed as Route B, is one of the routes of the Toll road, tolled Shuto Expressway system in the Greater Tokyo Area. The Bayshore Route is a stretch of toll highway that runs from the Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanazawa ward of Yokohama in th ...

in western

Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...

and follows an easterly course which parallels

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan spanning the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture, on the southern coast of the island of Honshu. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. Th ...

. Just before Miyanogi Junction where the expressway meets the Keiyō Road, the route branches away from the bay and heads inland in a northeasterly direction. It continues through Chiba Prefecture, though the city of Narita, and crossing the

Tone River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano River) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the ...

into

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

where the expressway reaches its current terminus in Itako. The expressway is an important route linking the greater

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

area with Narita International Airport. At Narita Junction travellers must switch to the Shin-Kūkō Expressway to travel the remaining distance to the airport proper. Currently the expressway extends from Wangan-Ichikawa Interchange to Itako Interchange, however plans are underway to extend the expressway to a junction with the Kita-Kantō Expressway near

Mito, Ibaraki is the capital city of Ibaraki Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 268,036 in 126,055 households and a population density of 1,233 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged ...

. The expressway is 6 lanes from the origin to Narita Junction, and the remainder is 4 lanes. The speed limit is from the origin to Chiba-kita Interchange, from Yotsukaidō Interchange to Narita Interchange, and other sections are .

List of interchanges and features

* IC - interchange, JCT - junction, PA - parking area, SA - service area, BR -

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

, TB - toll gate

References

External links

East Nippon Expressway Company
{{DEFAULTSORT:Higashi-Kanto Expressway Expressways in Japan Roads in Chiba Prefecture Roads in Ibaraki Prefecture Proposed roads in Japan 1971 establishments in Japan