The ruling Liberal Democratic Party placed emphasis on more road construction in its plan mapped out Friday for privatizing the nation's expressway operators.
The plan was drawn up by an LDP task force and approved by a joint meeting of its road-related panels. The LDP will hold talks with its coalition partner, New Komeito, and the government next week to decide on a framework for privatizing the four semigovernmental expressway operators, including Japan Highway Public Corp.
The LDP plan says the 2,000 km in unfinished sections of a 9,342 km expressway network currently under construction must be built using the toll revenues of the privatized expressway operators, combined with funds from the central and local governments.