Trucks moved slowly along city streets in convoys, their vehicles adorned with banners saying they would be forced to raise prices, while hundreds of protesters marched and shouted slogans calling for tax cuts on petrol and lower highway tolls.

Organisers from the Japan Trucking Association (JTA) estimated 20 000 demonstrators participated nationwide.

They said it was the first time such protests had been conducted on a national scale.

The association stopped short of organising a strike that could paralyse the country.

yesterday's protests slowed down services.

Japan's population is largely packed into its big cities, which depend on truck deliveries each morning to keep shops and restaurants stocked.

"As a result of rising costs, a surcharge is necessary," said JTA spokesperson Hiroyuki Izuka.

"Petrol prices have more than doubled in the last five years."

Izuka said surcharges had already been adopted by some trucking companies and others might be forced to follow suit.

Izuka did not say how large the surcharge might be.

The JTA is the country's largest trucking organisation and has about 51 000 member firms, or 80 per cent of Japan's trucking companies, Izuka said.

The fuel-price protest was the latest in resource-poor Japan, which imports nearly all its oil and is highly vulnerable to global price swings.

Last month, the country's fishermen went on a massive one-day strike.

Organisers said it involved 200 000 boats and 400 000 workers.

The Japanese government said soon after that it would provide emergency aid to the fishing industry, earmarking ¥74.5 billion (US$693 million) for a set of aid programmes to encourage fishermen to cut back on their use of fuel and reform their industry.

Nampa-AP

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