Loop Route

The Loop Route (環状線), signed as Route 1, is one of the expressway routes of the Hanshin Expressway system serving the Keihanshin area of Japan. The route forms a complete loop that travels only in a clockwise direction around central Osaka, passing through the wards of Chūō-ku, Kita-ku, Naniwa-ku, and Nishi-ku  with a total length of 10.3 km.

History
In 1964, the first section of the Loop Route and the Hanshin Expressway system opened.

The expressway was popular among street racers in the 1980s, but the illegal activity declined after police began heavily patrolling the route and the stagnation of Japan's economy set in during the Lost Decade.

List of interchanges
The entire expressway lies within Osaka in Osaka Prefecture

In fiction

 * In Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune, the Loop Route is a playable course