However, most roads except major Kando (roads that were improved, managed, and maintained by the Japanese nation) were not improved because the government was afraid that improving the traffic connecting among local regions might help farmers flee from the region, and thus the government believed that it should be enough to prepare a bridge of boats on rivers in the local regions only when nengu (land tax) needed to be transported to the capital (Kinoeinu-jo in May 801 of "Nihongi Ryaku" (Summary of Japanese Chronologies)).
しかし、地方間同士の交通は農民の逃亡を助けることになるとして主要官道を除いてはほとんど整備されず、地方の川には年貢を都へ運ぶ時だけ舟橋をかければ良いと考えられていた（『日本紀略』の延暦20年5月甲戌条）。