Over 90 Toll Gates Experiencing System Failure Cause Traffic Jams on Expressways in Tokyo Metropolitan, Tokai Regions

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:26 JST, April 6, 2025

A system failure occurred Sunday affecting Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) services on expressways across seven prefectures, including parts of the Tokyo metropolitan and Tokai regions, causing congestion on several routes.

ETC is a system in which onboard devices and tollgates communicate, and expressway companies send data to credit card companies to charge the tolls.

According to Central Nippon Expressway Co., the system outage occurred around 12:30 a.m. Sunday. The company reported that the outage impacted ETC usage at more than 90 toll gates on 17 expressway routes in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Yamanashi, Aichi, Gifu and Mie prefectures as of 12:30 p.m.

A traffic jam of about 8 kilometers had formed near Hachioji toll gate on the Chuo Expressway as of the same time. The company’s staff were manually handling toll payments. Interchanges that have no staff were closed.

Affected toll gates opened

As the ETC system failure continues, NEXCO Central opened affected toll gates on Sunday afternoon, allowing vehicles to pass through.

The company is asking drivers to pay the tolls by scanning a QR code on its website.