Zero Milestone In Japan

A granite pillar marks the Zero Milestone of Japan right in the middle of Nihonbashi Bridge. This small, unadorned stone remains the official origin point for every national highway in the country. Before paved roads connected the islands, the Tokugawa shogunate used this spot to calculate the distance to every province. When the first modern metal plate was embedded in the road surface here, workers unearthed a buried stash of old coins left as a talisman by road builders from the Edo period.