Japan's National Police Agency plans to raise the speed limit for large trucks on expressways as part of efforts to tackle a labor shortage in the transport industry that is feared to get worse from next April.

The limit for trucks with gross weight of eight tons or over will be raised to 90 kilometers per hour from the current 80.

Tougher regulations on overtime work by truck drivers are scheduled to come into effect in April. The move is expected to seriously reduce the number of drivers available, undermining the industry's capacity.

Earlier, an expert panel of the NPA concluded that the speed limit increase will not seriously lower traffic safety based on analyses of travel speed on expressways and installment of safety devices on vehicles.
Some truckers told the panel that raising the speed limit will help improve the quality of their business and labor productivity.

The NPA plans to amend related legislation by April.

The authorities decided not to raise the speed limit for tractor-trailers after examining such vehicles' structure and the number of accidents involving them.