They serve as places for travelers to rest and they are also intended to promote local tourism and trade.

All roadside stations provide 24-hour access to parking, public toilets and facilities for sharing information.

[5] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism conducted an experiment at 13 roadside stations across the country from 2017 to 2018 to test the feasibility of having self-driving cars carry people and products to and from homes within a range of 4 to 5 kilometers (2.5 to 3.1 mi) from roadside stations.

For national and prefectural routes, numbers of lower value indicate greater significance to the system.

The only highway to be given a two digit number since the creation of the Primary National Highways is National Route 58, which connects the capital cities Kagoshima and Naha of Kagoshima Prefecture and Okinawa Prefecture, the latter of which was occupied during the creation of the system.

It was added to the system shortly after the handover of the Ryukyu Islands from the United States to Japan.

[11] The existence of a road network in Japan as early as the 3rd century is noted in the Chinese Records of the Three Kingdoms.

Established sometime during the Asuka period, the Yamanobe Road was a narrow path that linked the cities of Osaka and Nara.

[2] In April 1956 the Japan Highway Public Corporation 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 the cities of Nagoya and Kobe,[15] the first section of which opened to traffic in 1963.