Japan's Toll System Crashes For 38 Hours, 24,000 Still Voluntarily Pay The Fees

Japanese people are known for following rules diligently and obeying the social and legal norms. The same characteristics were on display by the locals when the toll system crashed in the country in April this year. As the system malfunctioned on some of the busiest roads, the vehicles were allowed to pass freely through the toll gates, with users urged to pay the fee later online. While most people would have gladly taken the free ride, 24,000 people paid the money later, highlighting the impeccable sense of civic duty of Japanese people.

According to a report in Japan Today, the incident took place on April 8 and most of April 9 when the ETC (electronic toll collection) failed for approximately 38 hours. In Japan, the cars have to briefly slow down at the toll gate, and once the card's signal is read, the gates automatically rise and the vehicle is allowed to pass.

However, as the system malfunctioned, 106 toll gates on the Tomei and Chuo Expressways in Tokyo and the prefectures of Kanagawa, Yamanashi, Nagano, Shizuoka, Aichi, Gifu, and Mie were unable to read driver's cards.

Faced with a dilemma, expressway operator Central Nippon Expressway Co, also known as NEXCO Central, decided to open all the toll gates to let the cars pass through, "keeping traffic flowing on some of Japan's most-used motorways".

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Fee waived off

NEXCO Central revealed that by 10 pm on April 8, they had received offers of payments from approximately 24,000 people. Though NEXCO estimates that 920,000 ETC-equipped cars were driving around the expressways during the system outage, it remains unclear whether all of those cars were travelling within the affected areas.

In May, the company announced that it was waiving tolls for vehicles that passed through the affected areas during the toll system failure. For drivers who had already paid tolls for this period, the expressway operator said it would refund the full amount through the ETC mileage program or similar methods.

Reacting to the news, social media users commended Japan's high-trust society and the residents for keeping the system ticking.

"Japan is a high trust society,' said one user while another added, "I'd pay too if I was getting services like in Japan."

A third commented: "I drove in Japan last year. The system is so good. You didn't even have to stop at the toll gates."