730 (transport) - Changing The Direction

Changing The Direction

All traffic except emergency vehicles was banned from 22:00 July 29, 1978. Eight hours after, at 06:00 July 30, traffic was resumed, changed on the left-hand side. Traffic signs were changed within these eight hours.

As there were not enough police officers in Okinawa Prefecture to control all the traffic for the day, police officers were gathered from other parts of Japan.

Most left-hand side signs and signals had already been installed before the day but covered. During the eight hours transition the covers were removed and transferred to the old right-hand side signs. The scheme was called the Kudaka Scheme (久高方式, Kudaka Hōshiki?), after Hiroshi Kudaka (久高弘, Kudaka Hiroshi?), Okinawa Prefectural police officer in charge of 730, who "invented" the scheme.

The prefecture publicized the change beforehand through the 730 Campaign (730キャンペーン?), including posters and TV advertisements. The TV advertisement featured Yōkō Gushiken, a famous boxer from the prefecture.

In the prefecture, from the late 1970s until early 1980s, right-hand drive vehicles were often called 730 cars (730車両 or 730カー?), while LHD vehicles were called 729 cars (729車両 or 729カー?). Both expressions are now obsolete. Although rare, there are still a few "729 cars" surviving on the road.

The Japanese government spent some $150 million to cover the prefecture's conversion costs, which included relocating bus stops, moving signs, replacing 1,000 buses and 5,000 taxis, as well as replacing headlights on 300,000 vehicles so that they aimed to the left instead of the right. The United States military spent nearly $500,000 to switch signs on its bases.