Economic Impacts

Economic Impacts induced by Honshu-Shikoku Bridges

Three routes of expressways connect Honshu with Shikoku. Ohmishima Bridge is the firstly completed bridge in 1979, as one of Honshu-Shikoku Bridges. Then, Seto-Chuo Expressway is completed in 1988, Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway in 1998, and Nishi-Seto Expressway in 1999.

Socio-Economic conditions around Seto Inland Sea area impacted by Honshu-Shikoku Bridges were drastically changed, because Honshu and Shikoku were connected by the three fixed links.

Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway, especially, connects big urban areas in Honshu including Osaka and Hyogo with Shikoku. Therefore, various impacts for daily life, logistics, and sightseeing etc. were induced by the expressway. On the other hand, the socio-economic conditions around Honshu-Shikoku Bridges were enormously affected by “the bubble economy” or long depression time.

Seto-Chuo Expressway and Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway marked the 20th and the 10th anniversaries in 2008 respectively. Socio-economic conditions around the Honshu-Shikoku Project were therefore reevaluated in light of the middle-term views after the completion of the project and the impacts induced by the project were estimated.