Prefectural road and bridge spending hit ¥4.8 trillion in 1998, then fell to ¥2.6 trillion by 2022—a two-decade slide that reshaped Japan's constructi

Portal Site of Official Statistics of Japan website (https://www.e-stat.go.jp/). from Japan Japan's prefectural governments spent ¥2.62 trillion on roads and bridges in 2022—roughly half the ¥4.

82 trillion peak recorded in 1998, according to data from the Statistics Bureau of Japan. Key findings Peak year: Spending topped ¥4.82 trillion in 1998, the apex of a decade-long building boom.

Rock bottom: The series starts at just ¥949 billion in 1975, highlighting a fivefold expansion over 23 years. 2022 level: Spending landed at ¥2.62 trillion, up from pandemic-era lows but still 46% below the peak.

Total outlay: Over 48 years, prefectures spent a combined ¥134 trillion on roads and bridges. Structural decline: The long-run average of ¥2.79 trillion sits above 2022 spending, indicating a permanent reset.

What three decades of decline look like After the 1998 peak, prefectural road budgets entered a long downward slide.

The early 2000s saw cuts as the government trimmed public works, and the global financial crisis brought only a modest and short-lived recovery.

Even a pandemic-era stimulus push in 2020–2021 lifted spending by less than 10%, leaving it far below the bubble-era heights.

The data points to a broader story: Japan’s shrinking population and fiscal pressures have permanently reduced the appetite for large-scale road building.

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