Vehicles heading out of the Tokyo area are seen backed up near the Yokohama-Machida interchange on the Tomei Expressway in Yokohama's Midori Ward on July 22, 2021. (Mainichi)

       TOKYO -- Traffic jams clogged expressways in the capital region on July 22 as people headed out of Tokyo at the beginning of a four-day weekend just ahead of the Olympic Games opening ceremony.

       According to the Japan Road Traffic Information Center, as of 11 a.m. on July 22, traffic was backed up for 40 kilometers on the Chuo Expressway out of Tokyo up to the area near the Kobotoke tunnel on the border between Tokyo and Kanagawa prefectures, while the Tomei Expressway route out of the capital saw a traffic jam extending some 37 kilometers up to Isehara Junction in the Kanagawa Prefecture city of Isehara.

       To smooth the transport of Olympic athletes and staff during the Tokyo Games, some entrances on the Metropolitan Expressway were closed from July 19, and expressway tolls have been raised by 1,000 yen (about $9.00) between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

       According to the Metropolitan Police Department, while traffic jams on the Metropolitan Expressway on July 21 were down by about 60% compared to the level seen on weekdays in July two years ago, before the coronavirus pandemic, traffic on regular roads in the capital was up by around 30%.

       While a coronavirus state of emergency remains in place in Tokyo, concerns have been raised over a recent increase in coronavirus cases. Meanwhile the hashtag "Gorin sokai" (Olympic evacuation), for posts about people leaving the Tokyo area for more rural locales before the start of the Tokyo Games on July 23, has trended on Twitter.

       (Japanese original by Kazuhiro Toyama and Buntaro Saito, Tokyo City News Department)

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