A three-vehicle collision on the Kan-Etsu Expressway in Niigata Prefecture left two men dead on Monday night. According to police, a large truck broke down and stopped in a Tokyo-bound lane near Minamiuonuma at around 11:30 p.m. When the driver called to report the breakdown, his truck was rear-ended. Moments later, a passenger car carrying two men ploughed into the stationary truck; both men in the car were killed. The stretch of road is a two-lane section with good visibility, and police are still piecing together exactly why the car failed to stop. Tokyo-bound traffic between the Uonuma and Muikamachi interchanges was temporarily shut while the scene was cleared.
For most holidaymakers, this is a remote-sounding news item. But the Kan-Etsu Expressway is the main arterial route between Tokyo and Niigata, and it is one foreign visitors are increasingly using themselves. With rental cars more popular than ever among tourists exploring beyond the Golden Route, plenty of travellers now drive this exact corridor to reach ski resorts like Gala Yuzawa and the hot-spring towns of Echigo-Yuzawa, or to continue on toward Niigata's coast and Sado Island.
The crash is a reminder of a specific risk on Japanese expressways: stopped vehicles in live lanes, often at night. Even on a straight, well-lit stretch, a truck parked in a driving lane after dark is hard to judge until you're close, especially if you're tired after a long day or driving on unfamiliar roads. Japanese expressway driving generally feels calm and orderly, but speed differentials and night driving remain the danger zones.
A few habits make a real difference. Keep headlights on high beam where there's no oncoming traffic, so you spot stopped vehicles earlier. Leave a bigger following gap than feels necessary — rear-end crashes are among the most common on Japan's expressways. And if your own vehicle breaks down, Japanese highway protocol is to pull as far off the road as possible, switch on hazard lights, place the warning triangle well behind the car, and get behind the barrier before calling road assistance on the emergency phone posts dotted along the route.
Who should pay attention? Anyone planning a self-drive trip between Tokyo and Niigata or the Tohoku region — particularly in winter, when the Kan-Etsu also deals with heavy snow and studless-tyre requirements. The route reopens and operates normally after incidents like this one, but night driving on expressway sections without shoulders deserves extra caution.
This story was reported by Japan Today.