Japan’s ETC

Japan’s two leading toll agencies are beginning installation of ETC equipment. They plan to start electronic tolling for the public March 2000 at 45 toll lanes operated by the Japan Highway Public Corp and 9 lanes of the Tokyo Metro agency. Plans are to have 730 toll lanes equipped by the summer of 2003, 60% of the nation’s total of 1220 toll lanes.

The Japanese ET system will operate at a frequency of 5.8GHz at a very high data rate. The system uses transponders with a smartcard interface so that tolling can be accomplished without centralized accounts. This is the approach implemented in Singapore too.

The higher frequency is presently more expensive to manufacture equipment for and is technically more difficult, but components such as the transponder’s antenna are smaller and the communications beam can be located more precisely. North American systems use 915MHz where the toll business can exploit parts manufactured cheaply on a massive scale for cordless and cellular telephones. Japanese ETC has been the product of an enormous program of testing and development.