San’in-Setouchi-Shikoku Expressway Pass (SEP) vs NEXCO tolls (2026)
SEP is NEXCO West’s (with Hyogo Prefectural Roads Corporation) San’in-Setouchi-Shikoku Expressway Pass. Informal “Sanyo Expressway Pass” is not the official name. It is a 3–10 day flat fee on listed San’in, Setouchi/Sanyo, and Shikoku sections — not Honshi bridges, not Hanshin, not a Tokyo–Osaka ticket.
JapanTolls is an independent estimator. It is not NEXCO East, Central, or West, and it does not sell expressway passes. Confirm live prices, covered interchanges, and rental desks on the operator page before you book.
Eligibility and how you buy it
Non-Japanese passports, or Japanese citizens with a foreign permanent-residence permit, plus a licence that is valid in Japan.
Apply at a designated rental branch with a designated ETC card. JapanTolls does not sell SEP.
English user agreement: standard-size ETC vehicles from designated branches. Light motor vehicles may be used, billed at the same price as standard-size.
Covered period: from 25 March 2017 until a date NEXCO West defines separately — unlike TEP/KEP, the agreement does not print a 30 September 2026 end date.
Days
3 to 10 consecutive days. NEXCO West is explicit that SEP “1 day” is 00:00–23:59, so a rental that starts at 13:00 and ends at 13:00 three calendar days later can be 4 SEP days. Pick the course against clock dates, not only the rental hour count.
Official pass price
Official price table (NEXCO West user agreement, revised 1 October 2024; checked 2026-08-19. JNTO table updated 2026-01-22).
The English user agreement allows light motor vehicles, billed at the same price as a standard-size vehicle.
Under SEP, “1 day” is 00:00–23:59. A midday-to-midday rental can count as more SEP days than rental “24-hour days.”
Coverage, in words
No map image. In words: listed NEXCO West and Hyogo Roads sections in Hyogo, Tottori, Shimane, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Tokushima, Kagawa, Ehime, and Kochi. The English table includes stretches of the San-yo, Chugoku, Shin-Meishin (Kobe JCT–Kawanishi IC only), Maizuru-Wakasa, Harima, Okayama, Yonago, San’in, Matsue, Hamada, Takamatsu, Tokushima, Matsuyama, and Kochi expressways, plus named local roads such as Hiroshima-Iwakuni and Hiroshima-Kure.
The operator page says Honshi (Honshu–Shikoku Bridge) expressways and urban expressways are not included. Toll roads not operated by NEXCO West or Hyogo Roads are extra. Meishin through Osaka and Hanshin connectors on a JapanTolls Osaka–Hiroshima path are not a clean SEP invoice.
When it beats pay-as-you-go
Several days inside that western map — Hiroshima, Okayama, the San’in coast, Shikoku — on the listed NEXCO West sections, without relying on Honshi or urban expressways.
A kei billed at the same official SEP price as a standard car, if the desk will issue the pass.
Tokyo–Osaka. Our ordinary estimate is ¥10,840 on Tomei / Shin-Tomei / Meishin. SEP does not cover that corridor. JEP and CEP are gone.
Treating Osaka–Hiroshima (¥8,170 ordinary in our dataset) as a full SEP ride. That pair’s road list includes Meishin and Hanshin connectors, which SEP does not swallow whole. The cheapest official SEP price is ¥10,700 for 3 days — not a like-for-like swap for that city-pair page.
The three Honshi routes to Shikoku, Hiroshima urban expressway, and other roads the operator marks as extra.
Worked example (our routes + official pass price)
Estimate: JapanTolls ordinary Tokyo–Osaka ¥10,840 versus official SEP 3-day ¥10,700. The pass cannot be used on that pair, so pay-as-you-go is the only JapanTolls number that applies.
Osaka–Hiroshima ordinary ¥8,170 is in our dataset, but it is a mixed path (Meishin, Hanshin connection, Chugoku, San-yo). We do not subtract an invented “SEP-covered share.” Compare only the hops you will actually drive on listed SEP sections, using the calculator or other priced pairs, against the official table.