External Costs of Road Transport in Japan

Abstract

In this paper, we estimate the external costs of road transport in Japan. We estimate the external costs of air pollution, climate change, noise, traffic accidents, uncovered infrastructure and congestion. Basically we adopt techniques which are standard in European countries and the United States. External costs are distributed into four vehicle categories; cars, buses, large trucks and small trucks. Then, external costs per vehicle kilometer, per passenger kilometer, and per tons kilometer are calculated. The aggregate external costs amount to 32.5 (19.7-60.4) trillion yen or 4.6 (4.0-12.3) % of GDP. These values are about the same order as existing major studies.