There is no such thing as a freeway in Japan. For decades, it has been a given for drivers that if they use expressways they must pay the tolls, even though they've been promised that someday when the construction debts disappear so will the tollbooths.
So when think tank chief Yasuyo Yamazaki, former president of Goldman Sachs Asset Management Co., recently proposed making most expressways free, it struck many as a fresh idea.
Whereas Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has vowed to privatize Japan Highway Public Corp. and three other heavily indebted semigovernmental expressway operators, Yamazaki's proposal was taken up by the Democratic Party of Japan as a key feature of its manifesto for Sunday's Lower House general election.