Shuto Expressway is a network of toll expressways in Tokyo and adjacent prefectures, Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa prefectures. Total length is 337.8 km and it is one of the six urban(intra-city) expressways in Japan. Urban expressways exist in cities which are more than one million inhabitants excluding Sapporo, Sendai and Kyoto. The first Shuto expressway was built between Kyobashi and Shibaura in 1962, two years before the Tokyo summer Olympic games in 1964.
Shuto means capital in Japanese. It covers Tokyo metropolis, City of Chiba, Yokohama and City of Saitama. Other urban expressways are named after by the cities which are located at but Shuto expressway not.
Maximum speed limit for expressways in Japan are usually 100 km/h but Shuto expressways are limited up to 80 km/h, mostly 60 km/h. The toll used to be fixed, no matter how long you use the expressway but it changed to per distance in 2012. There is a discount for ETC(Electronic Toll Collection) users. The busiest month is March which 1,051,918 cars used Shuto Expressway daily in 2018.
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