It's that time of year again, when the highways and byways of Japan are suddenly filled with construction crews tearing up asphalt for repair and maintenance work. That's because the annual budgets of the crews' public-sector employers must be used up before the end of the fiscal year in March, regardless of whether or not the work is urgently needed. Japan's motor-vehicle arteries may not be the world's most convenient, but they are definitely the best maintained. I challenge anyone to find a single pothole on the streets of Tokyo.
A certain type of cynic will point to this situation as evidence of Japan's obsession with automobiles, but realists understand that it is just another manifestation of bureaucratic business-as-usual. As with research-whaling and traffic safety, road maintenance is less significant for achieving results than it is for justifying the budgets of related public-sector entities — in this case government departments that oversee public works. If such a department doesn't spend all the money in its budget before the fiscal year ends, it may be difficult to request as much money next year, so it finds work to do.
A similar process governs the building of new roads. In the current political row over the provisional gasoline tax, whose revenues are earmarked for new road construction, the ruling coalition wants to extend the tax for another 10 years after it expires on March 31, and has already estimated revenues of ¥59 trillion for new road construction during that period without specifying projects. In other words, the government wants to secure the money before it decides what to do with it.