The Democratic Party of Japan on Wednesday introduced to the Diet a counterproposal to a set of government-sponsored bills aimed at privatizing four highway corporations. The DPJ has promised to make most of the nation's expressways toll-free in fiscal 2008.

Privatization of Japan Highway Public Corp., Metropolitan Expressway Public Corp., Hanshin Expressway Public Corp. and the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority is one of the key issues in the current Diet session, along with the Iraq situation and pension reform.

DPJ officials said the government-sponsored scheme is merely an attempt to turn the debt-ridden semigovernmental corporations into joint-stock companies.

The officials said the profitable Metropolitan and Hanshin expressways would continue to charge tolls for a certain period.

The DPJ said toll-free expressways, promised by the government for decades but never realized, would help the nation's economy by reducing transportation costs.

The government-sponsored legislation advocates using toll revenue to pay off the expressway firms' debts, worth a total 40 trillion yen, and make the expressways toll-free after the debts are repaid in 45 years.

Under the DPJ's plan, the four entities would also be disbanded and a new special public corporation would be established to undertake expressway maintenance, and debts would be repaid via the issuance of long-term government bonds. The DPJ advocates streamlining the usage of auto-related tax revenues and allocating them for redeeming the bonds, as well as maintaining and building expressways and other roads.

The government legislation calls for privatizing the four highway corporations in fiscal 2005 and creating six entities that would undertake road maintenance and construction to help complete a 9,342-km nationwide expressway network. Borrowing would be backed by government guarantees.