Following World War II, Japan's economic revival led to a massive increase in personal automobile use.

[3] In April 1956 the Japan Highway Public Corporation (JH) was established by the national government with the task of constructing and managing a nationwide network of expressways.

In 1957 permission was given to the corporation to commence construction of the Meishin Expressway linking Nagoya and Kobe,[3] the first section of which opened to traffic in 1963.

Under this plan construction of expressways running parallel to the coastlines of Japan would be given priority over those traversing the mountainous interior.

In April 2018, completed sections of the network totaled 9,429 kilometres (5,858.9 mi) [6] In October 2005 JH, the Metropolitan Expressway Public Corporation, the Hanshin Expressway Public Corporation, and the Honshū-Shikoku Bridge Authority (managing three fixed-link connections between Honshu and Shikoku) were privatized under the reform policies of the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

However, unlike the JR Group acts: Japan's expressway development has been financed largely with debt.

It was decided in 1972 that tolls would be pooled from all expressways to provide a single source of operating funds, since some sections were little used.

In March 2009 (then) Prime Minister Taro Aso unveiled a plan to reduce tolls to ¥1,000 on weekends and national holidays.

Additional expressways serve travellers in Hokkaido and on Okinawa Island, although those are not connected to the Honshu-Kyushu-Shikoku grid.

Two-lane expressway sections are built to a standard that allows conversion to four lanes in the future.

Vehicles unable to reach a speed over 50 km/h (31.06856 mph), such as a tractor or moped, are not permitted on an expressway.

On October 24, 2016, the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism had introduced a new format of route numbering system for national expressways.

Tolls collected from all routes are pooled into a single fund and are used to repay the entire network.