Extract of the 2017
White Paper on Fire Service

Materials created by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency wereextracted and translated by the International Fire Service Information Center

Fire and Disaster Management Agency(FDMA)

FY2017 Firefighting White Paper – Extract – Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Current Status and Challenges for Disasters
Section1 Fire Prevention .......................................................................................................................................1[ Current Status and Recent Trends with Fires ] White Paper P.65-66...............................................................1[ Current Status of Fire Prevention Administration ] White Paper P.78-89 ........................................................3
1. Current Status of Residential Fire Prevention Measures ..........................................................................3
2. Fire Prevention Properties ...........................................................................................................................3
3. Fire Prevention Management System .........................................................................................................4(1) Fire Protection Managers...........................................................................................................................4(2) Supervisors of Fire Protection Management .............................................................................................5(3) Periodic Inspection and Reporting System for Fire Prevention Properties................................................5
4. Disaster Prevention Management System ..................................................................................................5(1) Disaster Protection Managers....................................................................................................................5(2) Supervisors of Disaster Protection Management ......................................................................................6
5. Onsite Inspections and Corrections of Violations .....................................................................................6(1) Current Status for Onsite Inspections and Corrections of Violations .........................................................6(2) Fire Safety Certification Mark.....................................................................................................................6(3) Initiation of a System for Publicly Announcing Violating Properties ...........................................................7
6. Fire Defence Equipment etc. ........................................................................................................................7(1) Current Status of Fire Prevention Approval ...............................................................................................7(2) Current Status for the Installation of Fire Defence Equipment etc. ............................................................7(3) Fire Protection Engineers and Fire Protection Inspectors .........................................................................8(4) Flame Retardancy Regulations ..................................................................................................................9(5) Regulations for Equipment and Tools that Use Fire ..................................................................................97. Inspection System for Fire Protection Machinery and Tools etc. ............................................................9(1) Inspections .................................................................................................................................................9(2) Self-labeling .............................................................................................................................................10
8. Performance Inspections of Technical Standard for Fire Defence Equipment etc. ............................. 11
9. Current Status of Investigations into the Causes of Fires ...................................................................... 11
10. Promoting Countermeasures to Product Fires ........................................................................................ 11
11. Promoting Fire Prevention Measures at Outdoor Event Venues............................................................12
Section2 Countermeasures to Disasters at Facilities for Hazardous Materials ............................................13[ Current Status and Recent Trends in Disasters at Facilities for Hazardous Materials ]White Paper P.91-94 ..............................................................................................................................................13
1. Fire Accidents ..............................................................................................................................................13(1) Number of Fire Accidents at Facilities for Hazardous Materials and the Damage Done.........................13(2) Causative Factors behind the Fire Accidents at Facilities for Hazardous Materials ................................14(3) Fire Accidents at Unauthorized Facilities .................................................................................................14(4) Fire Accidents during the Transportation of Hazardous Materials ...........................................................15(5) Fire Accidents during Temporary Storage or Handling ............................................................................15
2. Spillage Accidents .......................................................................................................................................15(1) Number of Spillage Accidents at Facilities for Hazardous Materials and the Damage Done ..................16(2) Causative Factors behind the Spillage Accidents at Facilities for Hazardous Materials .........................16(3) Spillage Accidents at Unauthorized Facilities ..........................................................................................16(4) Spillage Accidents during the Transportation of Hazardous Materials .....................................................16[ Current Status of Hazardous Materials Administration ] White Paper P.94-99 .............................................16
1. Regulations on Hazardous Materials ........................................................................................................16(1) Regulatory Structure for Hazardous Materials .........................................................................................16(2) Current Status of Facilities for Hazardous Materials................................................................................18(3) Hazardous Material Engineers.................................................................................................................19(4) Safety Systems at Offices ........................................................................................................................19(5) Safety Inspections ....................................................................................................................................19(6) Onsite Inspections and Orders ................................................................................................................19i

2. Securing Petroleum Pipelines....................................................................................................................20(1) Safety Regulations for the Petroleum Pipeline Business ........................................................................20(2) Ensuring the Safety of Petroleum Pipelines ............................................................................................20
Section3 Countermeasures to Disasters at Petroleum Industrial Complexes ..............................................21[ Current Status and Recent Trends in Disasters at Petroleum Industrial Complexes ]White Paper P.101-102 ..........................................................................................................................................21
1. Number of Accidents and Damage ............................................................................................................21
2. Characteristics of Accidents ......................................................................................................................21(1) Number of General Accidents by Type of Specified Business Establishment .........................................21(2) Number of General Accidents at Specified Business Establishments by Business Category .................22[ Current Status of Damage Countermeasures at Petroleum Industrial Complexes ]White Paper P.102-105 ..........................................................................................................................................22
1. Current Status of Petroleum Industrial Complexes and Other Special Disaster Prevention Areas ...22
2. Disaster Prevention Structures at Prefectures and Firefighting Agencies ...........................................24(1) Establishing Disaster Prevention Schemes .............................................................................................24(2) Emergency Responses when Disasters Occur .......................................................................................24(3) Maintaining the Firefighting Capabilities of Municipalities Containing Special Disaster Prevention
Areas .............................................................................................................................................................24
3. Disaster Prevention Structures at Specified Business Establishments ................................................24(1) Establishing Disaster Prevention Organizations for Self-defense ...........................................................24(2) Equipping High Capacity Foam Systems.................................................................................................25(3) Enhancing Disaster Prevention Structures for Self-defense ....................................................................25
4. Layout Regulations for Business Establishments...................................................................................25(1) Layout Regulations ..................................................................................................................................25(2) Status for New Establishment and Other Notifications ............................................................................25
5. Other Disaster Countermeasures ..............................................................................................................26(1) Establishing Disaster Response Structures .............................................................................................26(2) Establishing Green Buffer Zones for Disaster Prevention .......................................................................26
Chapter 2 Fire and Disaster Prevention Organizations and Activities
Section1 Firefighting Structures White Paper P.153-156 .................................................................................27
1. Fire Defense Organizations ........................................................................................................................27(1) Standing Firefighting Agencies.................................................................................................................27(2) Volunteer Fire Corps ................................................................................................................................27
2. Fire and Disaster Defense Facilities ..........................................................................................................28(1) Maintenance of Fire Trucks and Other Equipment ..................................................................................28(2) Fire Defense Communication Equipment ................................................................................................29(3) Water Sources for Firefighting .................................................................................................................30
Section 4 Education and Training Structures White Paper P.179-183 .............................................................31
1. Education and Training for Firefighters ....................................................................................................31
2. On-the-job Training .....................................................................................................................................31
3. Education and Training at Fire Academies ...............................................................................................31(1) Establishment of Fire Academies.............................................................................................................31(2) Types of Education and Training..............................................................................................................31(3) Enhancing and Strengthening the Education and Training at Fire Academies........................................31(4) Holding of Education and Training ...........................................................................................................32
4. Education and Training and Technical Assistance at the Fire and Disaster Management College....32(1) Facilities and Equipment ..........................................................................................................................32(2) Holding of Education and Training ...........................................................................................................33(3) Technical Assistance for Fire Academies .................................................................................................34(4) Special Lectures .......................................................................................................................................35
Section 5 Ambulance Service System White Paper P.184-192 .........................................................................36
1. Implementation of Emergency Medical Services .....................................................................................36(1) Emergency Medical Service Mobilization ................................................................................................36(2) People Transported by the Severity of Their Injury or Illness ..................................................................36ii

(3) People Transported by Ambulance by Age Group and Type of Accident ................................................36(4) Time Required to Arrive at the Scene ......................................................................................................37(5) Time Required to Check the Patient into a Hospital ................................................................................39(6) First-aid Treatment Administered by Ambulance Crew Members............................................................40
2. Implementation Structure for Emergency Medical Services ..................................................................40(1) Number of Municipalities Offering Emergency Medical Services ............................................................40(2) Number of Emergency Medical Crews and Emergency Medical Crew Members ...................................40(3) Trends in the Number of EMTs and Medical Crews with EMTs ...............................................................41(4) Number of Ambulances ............................................................................................................................42(5) Emergency Medical Services along National and Other Expressways ...................................................42
3. Promoting Coordination between Firefighting and Medical Care ..........................................................43(1) Acceptance of People Receiving Emergency Transport at Medical Institutions ......................................43(2) Standards on Patient Transport and Their Acceptance ...........................................................................43(3) Emergency Medical Care Structure .........................................................................................................44
Section 6 Rescue Activity System White Paper P.200-202................................................................................45
1. Implementation Status for Rescue Activities ...........................................................................................45(1) Number of Rescue Activities and Number of People Rescued ...............................................................45(2) Implementation Status of Rescue Activities by Type of Incident ..............................................................45
2. Implementation Structure for Rescue Activities ......................................................................................45(1) Number of Rescue Crews and Number of Rescue Crew Members ........................................................45(2) Ownership Status of Rescue Equipment for Rescue Activities ................................................................46
3. Holding National Firefighting and Rescue Skills Meets ..........................................................................47
Section 8 Wide-area Joint Firefighting Support and Emergency Fire Response TeamsWhite Paper P.210-219 ..............................................................................................................................................48
1. Wide-area Joint Support for Firefighting -Omitted- .................................................................................48
2. Emergency Fire Response Teams .............................................................................................................48(1) Creation of the Emergency Fire Response Teams and Their Enshrinement in Law via Revisions to
the Fire Organization Act ...............................................................................................................................48(2) Organization of and Mobilization Plans for Emergency Fire Response Teams .......................................51(3) Number of Emergency Fire Response Teams Registered and Their Equipment ....................................54

Attachment
Attachment 1-1-2 Extent of fire damage by prefecture White Paper P.298-300 ............................................57
Attachment 1-2-1 Trends in the number of facilities for hazardous material White Paper P.333................60
Attachment 2-1-2 Trends in the number of firefighting agencies and volunteer firefighter
White Paper P.347 ................................................................................................................................................61iii

Chapter 1 Current Status and Challenges for Disasters

1

SectionFire Prevention[ Current Status and Recent Trends with Fires ]Looking at the number of fires over the past ten years
reveals that this number has largely been trending
downwards since 2006. The number of fires that occurredin 2016 came to 36,831, falling by 2,280 (5.8%) comparedto the previous year, which is 69.1% of the number from

Fig. 1-1-1

ten years prior (the number of fires in 2006). Furthermore,
the number of fatalities from fires has also largely been
trending downward since 2006. The number of fatalities
from fires in 2016 came to 1,452, a decrease of 111 (7.1%)
compared with the previous year, or 70.2% that from ten
years ago (based on the number of fatalities from fires in2006) (Fig. 1-1-1, Table 1-1-1).

Changes in the number of fires and their trends

1

Table1-1-1

2

Status of fires(During each year)

[ Current Status of Fire Prevention Administration ]1. Current Status of Residential Fire
Prevention Measures
The number of residential fires in 2016 (10,523,
excluding those from arson) accounted for roughly 50% of
the number of building fires (19,410, excluding those fromarson). What is more, the number of fatalities fromresidential fires (885, excluding suicides by arson),accounts for roughly 90% of the number of fatalities frombuilding fires (985, excluding suicides by arson). In
addition, elderly people age 65 or older account for
approximately 70% of the fatalities from residential fires.
The revision of the Fire Services Act in 2004 mandated
that residential fire alarms be installed in newly-built
residences starting from June 2006. As for existing
residences, it mandated that said alarms be installed inthem within all municipalities nationwide based on theordinances in each municipality by June 2011. The Fireand Disaster Management Agency (FDMA) held theCommittee on Measures to Install Residential Fire Alarms.
Based on the Basic Policy on Measures to Install
Residential Fire Alarms established at this committee,

various initiatives have been deployed to ensure that
residential fire alarms are thoroughly installed andmaintained. This is done by the fire defense headquarters
throughout Japan in cooperation with volunteer fire corps,
women’s (female) firefighting clubs, voluntary disasterprevention organizations, and others. As of June 1, 2017,
the nationwide installation rate*1 was 81.7% and theordinance compliance rate*2 was 66.4%. When viewed by
prefecture, Fukui Prefecture had the highest installation
rate, and Ishikawa Prefecture had the highest ordinancecompliance rate. (Table 1-1-15, Attachment 1-1-25)

2. Fire Prevention Properties
The Fire Services Act defines the primary properties thatare eligible for fire prevention administration, such asarchitectural structures, as “fire prevention properties.” Italso mandates that personnel structures for fire prevention
be established, fire defence equipment etc.*3 be installed,
and flame retardant goods be used at those fire prevention
properties listed in Appended Table I of the Ordinance ofEnforcement for the Fire Services Act according to their
purpose, size, and so forth.

Table 1-1-15 Installation rate of home fire alarms and rate of compliance with regulations by prefecture(June 1, 2017)(Since this is a sampling study, each of the figures contains a certain degree ofmeasurement error.)

*1

*2

*3

The “installation rate” refers to the share of households that have installed fire defense equipment in at least one location of the sections of their home inwhich they are obligated to do so due to municipal fire prevention ordinances (including households that are exempt from installing home fire alarms on
account of having installed fire alarm systems, etc.) out of the total number of households.
The “ordinance compliance rate” refers to the share of households that have installed fire defense equipment in every section of their home in which they
are obligated to do so due to municipal fire prevention ordinances (including households that are exempt from installing home fire alarms on account of
having installed fire alarm systems, etc.) out of the total number of households.
Fire defence equipment etc.: Equipment for extinguishing fires, evacuation, and other fire protection activities (fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems,
automatic fire alarms, fire escape equipment, guide lights, etc.)3

As of March 31, 2017, the number of fire prevention
properties throughout Japan came to 4,089,941 (this is thenumber obtained from the Survey on the Actual
Conditions of Fire Prevention Properties (targeting thosefire prevention properties listed in Appended Table I of theOrdinance of Enforcement for the Fire Services Act thatare listed in (1) through (16-3) and have a total area of
150m2 or larger, and those listed in (17) through (19)); thesame hereafter).
Moreover, the number of fire prevention properties in
the 21 major cities (special wards of Tokyo andordinance-designated cities) came to 1,129,944,
accounting for 27.6% of the total fire prevention
properties throughout Japan. Those properties that are
particularly concentrated in urban areas include
underground malls (85.7% of the national total),semi-underground malls*4 (85.7% of the national total),

stores engaged in sex-related businesses, etc. (54.9% of
the national total) (Table 1-1-16).

3. Fire Prevention Management System(1) Fire Protection Managers
The Fire Services Act mandates that people withauthority when it comes to managing fire prevention
properties that contain large numbers of people (hereafterreferred to as “management officials”) undertake theoperations necessary for fire protection management.
These include appointing the fire protection managers*5that form the core of voluntary fire protection
management structures, as well as preparing firefighting
plans for fire protection management*6 that include
stipulations on firefighting, reporting, and holding disaster
drills.

Table 1-1-16 Number of fire prevention properties
Classification of fire prevention properties
(1)

(2)

(3)

a

Theaters, etc.

b

Public halls, etc.

aCabarets, etc.

bcdGame centers, etc.
Stores engaged in sex-related
businesses, etc.
Karaoke box and stores, etc.

aRestaurants, etc.

b

(6)

1,527

671

43.9

General bathhouses

4,686

1,181

25.2

(10)

Railroad depots

3,943

1,406

35.7

(11)

Temples and shrines, etc.

57,547

11,882

20.6

491,547

68,738

14.0

429

131

30.5

51,914

14,944

28.8

810

110

13.6

328,31152,08515.9

471,499

106,75322.6

365,954

135,56537.0

259,541

118,658

45.7

63

54

85.7

Libraries, etc.

Eating and drinking houses

83,14016,82920.2

aDepartment stores, etc.

160,744

27,98417.4

bHotels, etc.

58,668

6,034

10.3

Apartment houses, etc.
(1) Hospitals requiring nursing carefor patients in order to evacuate(2) Medical clinics with beds
requiring aid for patients in orderto evacuate(3) Hospitals (not including thosealisted in (1)), medical clinics withbeds (not including those listedin (2)), and birth centers withbeds(4) Medical clinics without beds andbirth centers without beds
Subtotal

1,311,632

486,99437.1

12,128

1,845

15.2

3,895

879

22.6

8,904

2,296

25.8

(1) Short-term welfare facilities forthe elderly(Notes)

d

(9)

(12)

(13)

63,487

12,11619.1

40,019

7,277

18.2

217

37

17.1

128

27

21.1

509

71

13.9

a

Factories, etc.

bStudiosaParking lots, etc.

b

Aircraft hangars(14)

Warehouses(15)

Offices, etc.
a(16)

Kindergartens, etc.

bSpecified multipurpose fire
prevention properties
Unspecified multipurpose
fire prevention properties(4) Welfare facilities for disabledchildren(5) Support facilities for the disabled
Subtotal

5,533

737

7

6

85.7

8,149

13.3 (16-3)
17.6 (17)Semi-underground malls

46,406

Cultural properties

8,721

1,581

18.1

(1) Elderly daycare centers, etc.

23,829

4,268

17.9

(18)

Arcades

1,316

478

36.3

294

61

20.7

(19)

Mountain forests

0

0

-

(2) Rehabilitation facilities
1
2

4

11.3

Special bathhouses

Schools

(8)

c

*6

22.1

856

(7)

17.2

b (3) Nurseries*528,311

7,605

23.8

530

(2) Shelters*4127,977

650

18.4

15.1

23.4

3,089

7,096

2,733

18.2

2,728

38,560

20.3

4,119

54.9

b

499

14,017113a

21 major Percentage
cities
(%)
6,456
20.0

17,618

206

(4)
(5)

(As of March 31, 2017)21 major Percentage
Nationwide
Classification of fire prevention properties Nationwide
cities
(%)
4,392
657
15.0
32,344(3) Nursery schools, etc.
66,0936,232
9.4(4) Child development
2,457
support centers, etc.
c
902
122
13.5
(5) Welfare centers for
18,051(6)
disabled persons, etc.
10,464
1,988
19.0
Subtotal
76,975(16-2)

Underground malls

4,089,941 1,129,944
27.6
Total
Prepared based on the Survey on the Actual Conditions of Fire Prevention Properties (targeting those fire prevention properties listed inAppended Table I of the Ordinance of Enforcement for the Fire Services Act that are listed in (1) through (16-3) and have a total area of 150m2
or larger, and those listed in (17) through (19); the same hereafter).
The 21 major cities refer to the 23 wards of Tokyo and 20 ordinance-designated cities (Sapporo City, Sendai City, Saitama City, Chiba City,
Yokohama City, Kawasaki City, Sagamihara City, Niigata City, Shizuoka City, Hamamatsu City, Nagoya City, Kyoto City, Osaka City, Sakai City,
Kobe City, Okayama City, Hiroshima City, Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka City, and Kumamoto City).

Semi-underground mall: A combination of an underground passage and shops established in the basement of a building that stand in a row facing thisunderground passage.
Fire protection managers: People who have been appointed from among those management officials who have certain qualifications, such as having
completed a training course on fire protection management for fire prevention properties, and who are in a managerial or supervisory position where they
can appropriately carry out the operations necessary for fire protection management at said properties.
Firefighting plans for fire protection management: These are plans that establish matters which are necessary for fire protection management. Said plans
are prepared by fire protection managers, with fire protection management operations carried out on the basis of said plans.

As of March 31, 2017, the number of fire prevention
properties that were legally required to establish fire
protection management structures and appoint fire
protection managers came to 1,069,966 nationwide. Of
these, 869,471 properties, which corresponds to 81.3%,
have appointed fire protection managers and have notified
firefighting agencies to this effect. Additionally, thenumber of fire prevention properties where the fire
protection manager has prepared firefighting plans for fire
protection management in order to carry out the proper
fire protection management operations for their own
offices and so forth and notified firefighting agencies tothis effect came to 807,742, for 75.5% of the total (Table
1-1-40).
(2) Supervisors of Fire Protection Management
For properties like high-rise buildings (buildings that are
taller than 31 m high), underground malls,
semi-underground malls, and other specified properties
under fire prevention at or above a certain size*7 wheremanagement authority has been divided up, the Fire
Services Act stipulates that fire protection managers are tobe appointed and carry out fire protection management foreach of the various areas which they have management
authority over. Conversely, it also states that supervisorsof fire protection management are to be appointed inconsultation with them in order to carry out fire protection
management for the building as a whole in an integrated
manner. It mandates that the management officials strive
to prevent fires and maintain the safety of the fire
prevention properties as a whole by preparing firefighting
plans for fire protection management for said properties
on the whole, as well as extinguishing fires, issuingreports, and holding evacuation drills (Supervisory Fire
protection management System: enacted April 1, 2014).
As of March 31, 2017, the number of fire prevention
properties that were required to appoint supervisors of fire
protection management came to 86,273 nationwide. Of
these, 46,701, which corresponds to 54.1%, haveappointed supervisors of fire protection management andnotified firefighting agencies to this effect. What is more,
the number of fire prevention properties that have
prepared overall fire prevention plans for the sake ofcarrying out fire protection management for the building
as a whole in an integrated manner and that have notified
firefighting agencies to this effect came to 45,804, which
is 53.1% of the total (Attachment 1-1-41).
(3) Periodic Inspection and Reporting System forFire Prevention Properties
To prevent fires from occurring and mitigate the damage
they do, it is important for not only firefighting agencies
but also personnel from the fire prevention properties, toperform maintenance for fire prevention with said
properties and strive to comply with fire prevention laws
and ordinances.
Therefore, the Fire Services Act mandates thatmanagement officials at fire prevention properties withcertain purposes or structures or the like have people withexpert knowledge when it comes to fire prevention(hereafter referred to as “qualified inspectors of fire
prevention properties”) perform inspections and report theresults of these to firefighting agencies once a year.
These qualified inspectors of fire prevention properties
consist of people with a certain level of knowledge of fire

prevention, such as fire protection engineers*8 with threeor more years of practical experience with construction
work for fire defence equipment etc., or people with threeor more years of practical experience as fire protection
managers. They must also complete a training course
offered by a corporation that has been registered by the
Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, andhave been issued a certificate attesting that they haveacquired the necessary knowledge and skills when it
comes to inspections for fire prevention properties.
What is more, these inspectors are obligated to undergo
re-training every five years for new knowledge and skills
that they must learn.
As of March 31, 2017, the number of such inspectors
came to 29,964.
Those fire prevention properties for which periodic
inspection reports have been mandated and which havebeen carrying out management for three or more years
continuously are exempt from the duty to perform
three-year inspections and reports if they meet a certain
criteria. This criteria is that they have been acknowledged
as having excellent compliance with the standards fromfire prevention laws and ordinances as a result ofinspections carried out by a firefighting agency on thebasis of an application from the management officials
from said property under fire prevention measures.
Fire prevention properties that have been acknowledged
as being in compliance with the inspection standards by
the inspectors for these properties may display a “FirePrevention
Standard
Inspection
CertificateofCompletion.” Those that have been acknowledged ashaving excellent compliance with the standards in fire
prevention laws and ordinances by firefighting agencies
may display a “Fire Prevention Certificate of Excellence.”

4. Disaster Prevention Management
System(1) Disaster Protection Managers
In order to handle imminent threats such as major
earthquakes, the Fire Services Act mandates that thosepeople with authority for the management of large-scaleand high-rise buildings and the like (hereafter referred toas “management officials”) are to establish fire defense
organizations for self protection.*9 Such organizations
prepare firefighting plans for disaster protection
management*10 suited to earthquake and other disasters,
and appoint disaster protection managers*11 responsible for
emergency response structures concerning significant
damage when earthquakes strike and for holding
evacuation drills. In addition, they carry out the necessary
operations in order to mitigate the damage from fires andother disasters (Disaster Prevention Management System:
enacted June 1, 2009).
As of March 31, 2017, the number of properties underdisaster prevention measures that were legally required toestablish disaster protection management systems andappoint disaster protection managers came to 9,452
throughout Japan. Of these, 7,884, which corresponds to
83.4%, have appointed disaster protection managers andnotified firefighting agencies to this effect.
What is more, the number of properties under disasterprevention measures at which the disaster protection
manager has prepared firefighting plans for disaster5

protection management, in order to carry out theappropriate disaster protection management operations attheir own offices and other establishments, and notified
firefighting agencies to this effect came to 7,316, or 77.4%of the total. The number of said properties that haveestablished fire defense organizations for self-protection
came to 8,336, or 88.2% of the total (Table 1-1-42).
(2) Supervisors of Disaster Protection
Management
For those buildings that require disaster protection
management where management authority has been
divided up, the Fire Services Act stipulates that disasterprotection managers are to be appointed and carry out
disaster protection management for each of the various
areas which they have management authority over.
Conversely, it also stipulates that supervisors of disasterprotection management are to be appointed in consultation
with them in order to carry out disaster protection
management for the building as a whole in an integrated
manner. It mandates that the management officials
establish fire and disaster safety for the disaster prevention
properties as a whole (supervisory disaster protection
management system: enacted April 1, 2014).
As of March 31, 2017, the number of fire prevention
properties that were required to appoint supervisors of
disaster protection management came to 3,025 nationwide.
Of these, 2,662, which corresponds to 88.0%, haveappointed supervisors of disaster protection management
and notified firefighting agencies to this effect. What ismore, the number of disaster prevention properties thathave prepared firefighting plans for the sake of carryingout disaster protection management for the building as awhole in an integrated manner and that have notified
firefighting agencies to this effect, came to 2,556, which is
84.5% of the total (Attachment 1-1-43).

5. Onsite Inspections and Corrections of
Violations(1) Current Status for Onsite Inspections andCorrections of Violations
Firefighting agencies enter fire prevention properties toperform onsite inspections pursuant to the regulations ofArticle 4 of the Fire Services Act when it is necessary to
do so for the sake of fire prevention.
The number of times onsite inspections were carried out
by firefighting agencies throughout Japan in FY2016 cameto 882,190 (Attachment 1-1-44).
Fire chiefs or fire station chiefs may order measures thatmust be taken with respect to deficiencies in fire
protection management at the fire prevention properties,
fire defence equipment etc. that has not been installed atsuch properties, or other problems brought to light throughthe onsite inspections. Such measures include appointing
*7

*8
*9

*10
*11

6

fire protection managers and installing fire defence
equipment etc. or special fire defence equipment etc.,
pursuant to the regulations in Article 8, Article 8-2, orArticle 17-4 of the Fire Services Act. In cases where this is
recognized as posing a hazard for fire prevention, they canorder that the necessary measures be taken, such as
repairing or relocating the fire prevention properties inquestion or removing the hazards from them, or else
question or removing the hazards from them, or else
prohibiting or restricting their use, pursuant to theregulations in Article 5, Article 5-2, or Article 5-3 of theFire Services Act. The act states that they must publicly
announce when they issue orders such as these.
In cases where violations of fire prevention laws orordinances are discovered as a result of these onsite
inspections, the fire chief or fire station chief works toredress these violations to bring them back into legal
compliance, such as by issuing warnings or other remedial
instructions, orders, and so on (Attachments 1-1-45,
1-1-46, 1-1-47, and 1-1-48).
Particularly for specified violating properties (this refers
to specified fire prevention properties with a floor area of
1,500m2 or more or unspecified fire prevention properties
with 11 or more floors, excluding the basement, where
sprinkler systems, indoor fire hydrants, or fire alarmsystems have not been installed in a majority of thesections where such equipment must be installed), strict
guidance is imposed based on the severity of the violation,such as those that pose a significant hazard to human lifein the event that a fire should break out.
As of March 31, 2017, there were 392 specified
violating properties, and so therefore it is necessary tocontinue working to thoroughly correct these violations ina focused manner (Table 1-1-17).
(2) Fire Safety Certification MarkThis new labeling system, which fire defense
headquarters throughout Japan were notified of in October
2013, provides users with information on a building’s
compliance with laws and ordinances related to fire
prevention and construction. Applications began being
tendered and received on April 1, 2014, and hotels,
Japanese-style hotels, and other facilities begansequentially putting the silver display marks out on
display starting from August 1, 2014.
In addition, those hotels and other facilities that havebeen issued silver display marks for three years in a row
and which meet the standards related to laws andordinances on fire protection and construction are allowed
to display a gold display mark.
Visitors to the FDMA’s homepage can check to confirm
hotels that have been issued the Fire Safety Certification
Mark throughout Japan (reference URL:
http://www.fdma.go.jp/kasai_yobo/hyoujiseido/index.html).

Specified properties under fire prevention measures: Certain properties under fire prevention measures that include department stores, restaurants, andother properties that can accommodate large numbers of people, as well as hospitals, nursing homes for the elderly, kindergartens, and other properties
used by people who would require assistance during a disaster.
Fire protection engineer: A person with expert knowledge of fire defence equipment etc. who has been issued a fire protection engineer certification
Fire defense organizations for self protection: These are personal organizations comprised of people like employees at properties under fire prevention
measures. They carry out the operations necessary in order to mitigate the damage from fires and other disasters when they occur based on the roles
established in the firefighting plan.
Firefighting plans for disaster protection management: These are plans that establish matters which are necessary for disaster protection management.
Said plans are prepared by disaster protection managers, with disaster protection management operations carried out on the basis of said plans.
Disaster protection managers: People who have been appointed from among those management officials who have certain qualifications, such as having
completed a training course on disaster protection management, and who are in a managerial or supervisory position where they can appropriately carryout the operations necessary for disaster protection management at disaster prevention properties.

(3) Initiation of a System for Publicly Announcing
Violating Properties
The System for Publicly Announcing Violating
Properties, which came about through a notification from
December 2013, is a system for announcing the details oflegal violations on the homepages of municipal
governments based on the ordinances of said
municipalities. This is aimed at specified properties underfire prevention measures that have not yet installedsprinkler systems, indoor fire hydrants, or fire alarmsystem, despite being obligated to do so. Thisannouncement system was initiated in all
ordinance-designated cities starting from April 2015.
What is more, fire departments overseeing populationsof 200,000 people or more are slated to begin utilizing thispublic announcement system starting from April 2018.
Information on things like the implementation status of
the public announcement system and its scheduled
implementation period for municipalities throughout Japan
can be confirmed via the FDMA’s website (reference
URL: http://www.fdma.go.jp/publication/index.html).

Table 1-1-18

Category

By FY
FY2009FY2010FY2011FY2012FY2013
FY2014FY2015FY2016FY2017(Notes)1

No. ofNo. of violating properties thatproperties at corrected their
the star of theviolations
FY
during the FY
(a)
(b)

301
299
389
179
230
249
331
359
392

Approved
FY20152

3

FY2015

20.9%
23.1%
9.5%
25.7%
23.5%
22.5%
30.2%
34.8%
－

Prepared based on the Survey on the Actual Conditions ofFire Prevention Properties.
“No. of violating properties at the start of the FY” is thesum of properties that remained in violation from two
fiscal years before and violating properties that newly
became aware they were in violation during theprevious fiscal year at the end of the previous fiscal
year for each fiscal year (as of March 31).
“No. of properties that corrected their violations during
the FY” is the number of properties that corrected
their violation during the fiscal year (it does notinclude those that newly became aware of theirviolation or that were abandoned).

(Cases)Unapproved
FY2016

Correction rate(%)(c=b/ax100)

63
69
37
46
54
56
100
125
－

Process status for fire prevention approval

Breakdown

Gist ofapplication
New construction

Table 1-1-17 Trends in the improvement status of
specified violating properties

Total

FY2016FY2015FY2016207,240

214,00126

16

207,266

214,017

Enlargement

20,17019,4262

4

20,172

19,430Reconstruction

843

757

1

1

844

758

Relocation

146

123

0

0

146

123

Repair

134

124

0

0

134

124

Remodeling
Change of
purpose
Other

100

112

0

0

100

112

3,926

4,021

1

0

3,927

4,021

3,161

3,238

0

1

3,161

3,239

Total

235,720

241,80230

22

235,750

241,824(Notes)

Prepared based on the Survey on the Actual Conditions of Fire Prevention Properties

6. Fire Defence Equipment etc.
(1) Current Status of Fire Prevention Approval
Fire prevention approval is a system that wasestablished with the goal of boosting the safety ofbuildings by having personnel from firefighting agencies
get involved in fire prevention for buildings starting fromthe design stage in their capacity as experts on fire
prevention.
When it comes to the operation of this system, thefirefighting agencies offer finely-detailed examinations
and instructions based on legal regulations related tobuilding fire prevention from the perspective of fire
prevention safety and firefighting activities. They also
work to enhance structures and strengthen cooperation for
ensuring that this work is handled promptly.
The number of cases processed regarding fire prevention
approval work throughout Japan in FY2016 came to241,824, with only 22 of these failing to receive approval(Table 1-1-18).

(2) Current Status for the Installation of Fire
Defence Equipment etc.
The Fire Services Act states that the relevant personnel
from fire prevention properties must install and properly
maintain the necessary fire defence equipment etc.
according to the purpose, size, structure, and capacity ofthe property in question.
A look at the installation status for primary fire defence
equipment etc. in specified fire prevention properties
throughout Japan reveals that, as of March 31, 2017, theinstallation rate for sprinkler systems (number
installed/number that needs to be installed) was 99.7%,
while that for automatic fire alarms was 98.7% (Table
1-1-19).
With respect to the technical standards pertaining to fire
defence equipment etc., regulations are being successively
set in place in accordance with technological progress andsocietal demands. In recent years, a fire occurred at agroup home for elderly people with dementia in Nagasaki
City, Nagasaki Prefecture in February 2013 (that left fivepeople dead and seven injured). In light of this, it was7mandated that social welfare facilities that mainly housepeople who would have difficulty evacuating on their own
must install sprinkler systems as a general rule, regardlessof their floor area. The installation of these sprinkler
systems has been carried out since April 1, 2017 as a resultof the Partial Revision of the Order for Enforcement of theFire Service Act (promulgated on December 27, 2013) andother legislation. To carry this out, transitional measures
were established, which state that these are to be installedon existing facilities by March 31, 2018.
Moreover, a fire occurred at a medical clinic with bedsin Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture in October 2013
(which left ten people dead and five injured). In light of
this, it was mandated that medical clinics with beds andhospitals with patients that require assistance in order toevacuate must also install sprinkler systems as a generalrule, regardless of their floor area.
(3) Fire Protection Engineers and Fire Protection
Inspectors
Efforts are made to ensure the performance of fire
defence equipment etc. via inspection system for fire
protection machinery and tools. However, if there are

deficiencies or defects at the installation stage, then such
equipment will be rendered incapable of performing
properly when a fire does occur. To prevent suchcircumstances, the installation and maintenance of certain
fire defence equipment etc. can only be performed by fire
protection engineers.
What is more, fire defence equipment etc. must be
properly maintained on a daily basis to ensure that it iscapable of performing at any and all times. As a result, it
has been mandated that periodic inspections be performed
and the results of these be reported. These inspections
premised on maintaining the equipment require
knowledge and skills with regards to the fire defence
equipment etc.. Therefore, the relevant personnel from thefire prevention properties must have fire protectionengineers or fire protection inspectors (people who havecompleted certain training courses offered by corporations
that have been registered by the Commissioner of the
FDMA and been issued a fire protection inspector
certificate) perform the inspections on the fire defence
equipment etc..

Table 1-1-19 Installation status for sprinkler systems and fire alarm systems at specified properties
under fire prevention measures throughout Japan(As of March 31, 2017)8

Efforts are made to improve the quality of these fire
protection engineers and fire protection inspectors bymandating that they undergo re-training at certain fixedintervals after they have received their license in order forthem to acquire new knowledge and skills concerning thefire defence equipment etc.. Moreover, these people will
be ordered to return their license or face a similar
punishment in the event that they violate any of the fire
prevention laws or ordinances. As of March 31, 2017, thetotal number of fire protection engineers came to1,144,899 (Attachment 1-1-49). In addition, the numberof special fire protection inspectors came to 687 special
inspectors (for special fire defense equipment etc.),
152,322 Class 1 inspectors (for mechanical systems) and
143,811 Class 2 inspectors (for electrical systems).
Programs for displaying that inspections have been
performed, in which inspection certificates of completionverifying that inspections of fire defence equipment etc.
have been properly carried out are posted, have been
independently instituted at the prefectural level. This isdone in an effort to clarify the responsibilities for
performing inspections and have the relevant personnel
from fire prevention properties perform the proper
inspections.
The installation of these sprinkler systems has been
carried out since April 1, 2016 as a result of the Partial
Revision of the Order for Enforcement of the Fire Service
Act (promulgated on October 16, 2014) and otherlegislation. To carry this out, transitional measures were
established which state that these are to be installed on
existing facilities by June 30, 2025.
For properties in violation of fire prevention laws andordinances, such as those in violation of the obligation to
install fire defence equipment etc., orders for them to takemeasures pursuant to the Fire Services Act are proactively
issued and the prompt and effective remediation of theviolation is further promoted.
(4) Flame Retardancy Regulations
A. Usage Status for Flame Retardant Goods
Using goods that resist catching fire for various objects
that tend to be easily flammable within buildings prevents
fires from breaking out and simultaneously checks the
spread of fires during their initial stages when they dooccur. As such, this is extremely effective when it comesto preventing fires. Therefore, fire prevention properties
that must give forethought to fire prevention due to theirstructural features or configuration, such as high-risebuildings and underground malls, as well as fire
prevention properties like theaters, hotels, and hospitals
that are used by large unspecified numbers of people andpeople requiring special consideration have been
designated as “flame retardancy and fire prevention
properties.” The Fire Services Act mandates that theseproperties use goods with the prescribed flame retardant
performance (hereafter referred to as “flame retardant
goods”) for the curtains, stage curtains, plywood display
boards, carpets, and other goods used (hereafter referred toas “goods under the flame retardancy requirement”).
As of March 31, 2017, the number of flame retardancy
and fire prevention properties came to 971,176. The

conformance rate (share of the flame retardancy and fire
prevention properties where flame retardant goods areused for all of the goods under the flame retardancy
requirements at said properties) at flame retardancy andfire prevention properties using curtains and stage curtains
came to 86.2%, while it was 85.7% at those using carpets,and 83.2% at those using plywood display boards (Table
1-1-20).
B. Public Awareness of Flame Retardant Goods
for Bedding and Other Goods
Aside from those goods under the flame retardancy
requirement stipulated in the Fire Services Act such as
curtains and carpets, using fireproof goods for futons,
pajamas, the body covers for automobiles and motorcycles,
and more is also extremely effective for preventing fires.
Therefore, the FDMA spreads public awareness of these by
uploading videos detailing the effects from these flame
retardant goods to its homepage (reference URL:
http://www.fdma.go.jp/html/life/yobou_contents/materials/).
(5) Regulations for Equipment and Tools that Use
Fire
From the perspective of fire prevention, the location,
construction, management, and handling of equipment andtools that use fire, including home gas burners, stoves,
hot-water heaters, fireplaces, kitchen equipment, andsauna equipment, are regulated via the fire prevention
ordinances established by each municipality. These areestablished pursuant to the Ministerial Ordinance
Establishing Standards for Enacting Ordinances on the
Location, Construction, and Management of Eligible
Equipment that Uses Fire and the Handling of Eligible
Tools that Use Fire (2002 Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications Ministerial Ordinance No. 24; hereafterreferred to as the “Ministerial Ordinance on Eligible
Equipment and Tools that Use Fire”).

7. Inspection System for Fire Protection
Machinery and Tools etc.
(1) Inspections
Fire protection machinery or tools that are subject toinspection (hereafter referred to as “machinery and tools
subject to inspection”) are prohibited from being sold,displayed for commercial purposes, and so forth unlessthey pass inspections and include a label indicating thispursuant to the regulations of Article 21-2 of the Fire
Services Act.
The machinery and tools subject to inspection include
the 12 items stipulated in Article 37 of the Order for
Enforcement of the Fire Services Act, including fire
extinguishers and enclosed sprinkler heads.
These inspections consist of “model approval” (approvalindicating that the shape and other factors of themachinery and fools conform with the technicalspecifications established in ministerial ordinances) and“model compliance inspections” (inspections conducted toconfirm that the shape and other factors of the individualmachinery and tools subject to inspection are identical to
the shape and so forth for models of said equipment thathave received model approval) (Table 1-1-50).

9

Table 1-1-20 Number of flame retardancy and fire prevention properties and usage status of flame
retardant goods
Categories of flame retardancy and fire prevention
properties

No. of flame
retardancy
and fire
prevention
properties

Properties on the left
using all of the goods
under the flame
retardancy requirement

Use ofcurtains,
stage
curtains,
etc.

Properties on the left
using all of the goods
under the flame
retardancy requirement

Use ofcarpets

Compliance
rate (%)

Compliance
rate (%)(As of March 31, 2017)
Properties on the left
using all of the goods
under the flame
retardancy requirement

Use ofplywooddisplayboardsCompliance
rate (%)

a

Theaters, etc.

4,259

2,505

2,389

95.4%

1,876

1,780

94.9%

459

437

95.2%

b

Public halls, etc.

63,53538,27034,39789.9%

22,491

19,812

88.1%

3,985

3,476

87.2%

a

Cabarets, etc.

870

333

231

69.4%

360

275

76.4%

48

46

95.8%

b

Game centers, etc.

10,101

4,331

3,843

88.7%

4,103

3,729

90.9%

649

586

90.3%

c

Stores engaged in sex-related
businesses, etc.

199

113

91

80.5%

83

65

78.3%

6

4

66.7%

d

Karaoke box and stores, etc.

2,664

1,243

1,091

87.8%

1,071

975

91.0%

171

155

90.6%

a

Restaurants, etc.

3,052

1,570

1,288

82.0%

1,496

1,238

82.8%

188

166

88.3%

b

Eating and drinking houses

80,206

32,662

26,09579.9%

20,737

16,678

80.4%

3,781

3,129

82.8%

Department stores, etc.

152,601

56,44650,70489.8%

30,57926,878

87.9%

7,470

6,368

85.2%

a

Hotels, etc.

57,10942,12338,155

90.6%

35,60432,474

91.2%

2,727

2,367

86.8%

a

Hospitals, etc.

61,04642,42139,80893.8%

24,12022,314

92.5%

3,803

3,510

92.3%

b

Special elderly nursing homes, etc.

44,91735,04833,16694.6%

20,447

19,235

94.1%

3,407

3,092

90.8%

c

Elderly daycare centers, etc.

73,67550,991

47,154

92.5%

29,204

26,412

90.4%

4,864

4,332

89.1%

d

Kindergartens, etc.

16,756

11,986

11,044

92.1%

6,317

5,730

90.7%

1,044

924

88.5%

(9)

a

Special bathhouses

1,791

1,031

888

86.1%

1,008

902

89.5%

62

48

77.4%

(12)

b

Studios

646

176

160

90.9%

157

147

93.6%

129

112

86.8%

a

Specified multipurpose fire
prevention properties

322,173

113,666

85,32775.1%

78,78960,21376.4%

14,442

10,64973.7%bUnspecified multipurpose fire
prevention properties

23,505

2,978

2,308

77.5%

2,097

1,623

77.4%

728

549

75.4%

62

39

29

74.4%

34

27

79.4%

13

13

100.0%
100.0%

(1)

(2)

(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)

(16)
(16-2)

Underground malls(16-3)

Semi-underground malls
High-rise buildings(Notes)

1
2

Total

7

3

1

33.3%

2

1

50.0%

1

1

52,002

19,096

15,59881.7%

17,712

15,148

85.5%

3,401

2,786

81.9%

971,176

457,031393,767

86.20%

298,287

255,656

85.70%

51,37842,75083.20%

Prepared based on the Survey on the Actual Conditions of Fire Prevention Properties.
High-rise buildings (buildings that are taller than 31m) are not classified within Appended Table I of the Ordinance of Enforcement for the Fire
Services Act. Moreover, fire prevention properties that correspond to high-rise buildings were counted in the “High-rise buildings” field within the“Classification of fire prevention properties” column.

Moreover, for machinery and tools subject to inspection
with regard to the development of new technologies,
inspections can be carried out via the technicalspecifications established by the Minister of Internal
Affairs and Communications for those items that conformto the technical standards established by said ministerial
ordinance in terms of their shape or the like, or thoseacknowledged as having performance that meets orexceeds this level. Through this, the aim is to enhance theinspection system so as to promote technologicalinnovation with these machinery and tools subject toinspection.
Regarding the inspection system, it came to light thatcases of misconduct occurred in October 2008, including
test samples being secretly switched out during model
compliance inspections for fire hoses. Moreover, in March2010 it was discovered that fire-extinguishing foam usedin the compressed air foam apparatuses on fire trucks that
had not been inspected was being sold.
As part of the public service corporation program
review carried out in May 2010, evaluation results were
issued to the effect that reassessments were to be madewith a view towards expanding both voluntary screenings
and the increased involvement of the private sector whenit comes to inspections. Based on this, the Act for Partial
Revision of the Fire Services Act was promulgated onJune 27, 2012. This established collection orders via the
Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications andstrengthened penal provisions in cases where machineryand tools subject to inspection not in compliance with thestandards or which lacked labels indicating theircompliance were circulating on the market.

10

It also relaxed requirements in order to promote theentry of private companies into the registered inspection
body market, among its other stipulations. Moreover, thePartial Revision of the Order for the Enforcement of theFire Services Act (promulgated on March 27, 2013) mademachinery and tools subject to inspections, mainly the fire
hoses and couplers used by firefighting agencies and theelectric leak alarms, for which there has been declining
need due to changes in the configurations of buildings,
items that are subject to self-labeling. At the same time, italso newly added residential fire alarms, which arerequired to be installed in all homes, to the machinery andtools subject to inspection (entered into force on April 1,
2014).
(2) Self-labelingWith the self-labeling system, it is the responsibility ofthe manufacturers to confirm their compliance withspecifications on their own according to the regulations in
Article 21-16 (3) of the Fire Services Act. The system also
gives approval for labeling models that have been reported
to the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications inadvance. The number of reports from manufacturers in
FY2016 came to 16 for power fire pumps, 16 for fire
hoses, 1 for fire suction hose, 15 for couplers, zero fordisposable aerosol fire extinguishers, and 9 for electricleak alarms.
Machinery and tools that are subject to self-labeling(hereafter referred to as “machinery and tools subject toself-labeling”) are prohibited from being sold, displayedfor commercial purposes, and so forth unless they include
a label pursuant to the regulations of Article 21-16 (2) ofthe Fire Services Act.

Similar to machinery and tools subject to inspection, theAct for Partial Revision of the Fire Services Act(promulgated on June 27, 2012) established collection
orders via the Minister of Internal Affairs andCommunications and strengthened penal provisions formachinery and tools subject to self-labeling not incompliance with the standards or which lacked labels
indicating their compliance.
Items that fall under the category of machinery and tools
subject to self-labeling include power fire pumps and firesuction hoses. Furthermore, as a result of the Partial
Revision of the Order for Enforcement of the Fire Services
Act (promulgated on March 27, 2013) and otherlegislation, the fire hoses, couplers, and electric leakalarms that had previously been counted as machinery andtools subject to inspection, as well as the disposable
aerosol fire extinguishers that are generally in widespread
circulation but which frequently suffer from rupture
accidents and the like, were newly added to this category(entered into force on April 1, 2014).

8. Performance Inspections of TechnicalStandard for Fire Defence Equipment
etc.
When it comes to the technical standards for fire
defence equipment etc., oftentimes details like materials or
dimensions are prescribed in specification documents or
the like. This makes it difficult for new technologies togain acceptance, even when they offer satisfactory
performance. Therefore, technical development for thefields of fire and other disaster prevention is promoted andperformance regulations are adopted to ensure that evenmore effective fire prevention and safety measures can beestablished.
The basic philosophy behind this is to judge whether
equipment offers performance that is at or above the levelof performance of the installed fire defence equipment etc.
based on the conventional technical standards. Equipmentthat has been confirmed to be at or above the conventional
performance level is approved for installation in place ofthe existing fire defence equipment etc..
The performance demanded of fire defence equipment etc.
is divided up into three categories. These are “initial spread
inhibition performance,” which is performance for inhibiting
the spread of fires during the initial stages, “evacuation safety
support performance,” which is performance that supports
safely evacuating during fires, and “firefighting activity
support performance,” which is performance that supports theactivities of firefighting teams.
A certain body of knowledge has been gained
regarding these, on which their equivalence is evaluated
via objective verification methods (methods of objectively
and impartially verifying newly developed technologies
and technical innovations) and so forth.
At the same time, a certification system via the Ministerof Internal Affairs and Communications has been
established aimed at equipment for which evaluations of
its equivalence cannot be performed solely through theexisting objective verification methods (such as special
fire defence equipment etc.). Under this system,
applications are made for each property under fire
prevention measures regarding special fire defence
equipment etc. for which general inspection standards

have not have established. The Minister of Internal Affairs
and Communications will then perform an examination
based on the evaluation results from a performance
evaluation agency (the Japan Fire Equipment Inspection
Institute or a registered inspection body), and equipmentthat has been acknowledged as having the necessary levelof performance can be installed. As of March 31, 2017, 64
cases have received certification thus far as special fire
defence equipment etc. (Attachment 1-1-51).
The expectation is that, by applying these regulations,
new equipment that uses new technologies will be
proactively developed and disseminated.

9. Current Status of Investigations into
the Causes of Fires
Advances in science and technology have brought about
increasing sophistication for industry and changes insocial conditions. This has resulted in a tendency for fires
that are large in scale and which assume aspects ofcomplexity to occur with great frequency, and soinvestigating the causes behind these requires
sophisticated expertise. What is more, investigating thecauses of fires and illuminating the extent of the damage
caused by both fires and firefighting are crucial when it
comes to examining modalities for subsequent fire
prevention administration.
Investigating the causes of fires is unequivocally therole of local governments, but it is the duty of the national
government to complement them in this. In cases where
there has been a request from a firefighting agency, or theCommissioner of the FDMA has deemed that there is aparticular necessity in doing so, an investigation into thecauses of a fire can be carried out by the Commissioner of
the FDMA (see White Paper P287). Investigation teams
formed from personnel from the FDMA according to thetype of fire carry out the investigations into the causes ofthe fire through this system in coordination with
firefighting agencies. Reviews are conducted based on theknowledge and data obtained from the investigations, andthis is reflected in policies for fire defense administration.
Cases where responses such as revising fire prevention
laws and ordinances were carried out based on the resultsof investigations into the causes of fires by theCommissioner of the FDMA that were carried out recently
are shown in Table 1-1-21.
In an effort to improve the effectiveness of investigations
into the causes of fires regarding product fires, the Act for
Partial Revision of the Fire Services Act (Law No. 38 from2012) granted firefighting agencies the right to issue an orderto submit materials to manufacturers and importers and theright to collect information from them (entered into force on
April 1, 2013).

10. Promoting Countermeasures to
Product Fires
In recent years, as the causes of fires has grown
extremely diverse, the products close to the general publicin their daily lives have begun causing fires as well,including automobiles and other vehicles, electronic
appliances, and burning appliances. Given the strong
demands to ensure consumer safety and peace of mind, theFDMA has been strengthening its initiatives to combat
these product fires.
11

For such fires, the FDMA has established a structure
whereby it collects fire information from firefighting
agencies in a comprehensive manner and aggregates thenumber of fires for each type of product which serve as

the ignition source. It then provides the public withwarnings and alerts quickly and effectively by announcing
information like the names of faulty products and their
manufacturers every quarter.

Table 1-1-21 Investigations into the causes of fires by the Commissioner of the FDMA that were recently
conducted and responses based on the results of theseFires that firefighting agencies deemed to have beencaused by defects in automobiles and other vehicles, aswell as electronic appliances and burning appliances, that
occurred in 2016 (January - December 2016) were
aggregated. From this, it was discovered that of the totalof 810 product fires, 188 were fires deemed to have beenFig. 1-1-19

Trends in the survey results on product fires over the past five years

The results of these investigations are reported to
firefighting agencies throughout Japan. Furthermore, thecollected fire information is shared between the Consumer
Affairs Agency, the Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport
and Tourism, and the National Institute of Technology and
Evaluation (NITE), which work together to promote
countermeasures to product fires.
What is more, with respect to investigations into thecauses of fires carried out by firefighting agencies
throughout Japan, efforts are also being made to improve
the investigation skills of the firefighting agencies.
Examples of this include providing them with technicalsupport such as scientific investigation based on the expert
knowledge and equipment and materials of the National
Research Institute of Fire and Disaster and so forth. In
addition to working to enhance investigations into thecauses of fires and the structures for this, the FDMA also
strives to proactively collect information on product fires
and strengthen collaborations with the relevant agencies.
Through this, it is moving forward with ensuring
12

caused by product defects, 424 were fires that could not be
determined to have occurred from a defect in a specified
product as the direct cause although the cause was
identified, and fires where the cause could not be
identified, and 198 were fires that are still currently underinvestigation (Fig. 1-1-19).

consumer safety and peace of mind, while also preventing
fire accidents caused by products.

11. Promoting Fire Prevention Measures
at Outdoor Event Venues
In August 15, 2013, a fire broke out at the venue for afireworks show in Fukuchiyama City, Kyoto, that involved
enormous human suffering in the sense that 3 people diedand 56 were injured. Following this, the Order for
Enforcement of the Fire Services Act was revised in
December 2013 and the Fire Prevention Ordinance(Example) was revised in January 2014 in order topromote fire prevention measures at outdoor event venues.
These mandated initiatives like preparing fire
extinguishers when handling equipment that use fire atoutdoor event venues and the like, and appointing
managers for fire prevention at those large-scale outdoor
and similar events that have been specially designated byfire chiefs. It also mandated that plans for the operations
necessary for fire prevention be prepared and submitted.

Chapter 1 Current Status and Challenges for Disasters

2 Countermeasures to Disasters at Facilities for Hazardous Materials

Section[ Current Status and Recent Trends in Disasters at
Facilities for Hazardous Materials ]Accidents at facilities for hazardous materials (see P17 *2)
are broadly classified into fires (including explosions) andspills of hazardous materials (see P17 *1). The number of fire

Fig. 1-2-1

and spillage accidents at facilities for hazardous materials
have been trending upward since 1994. In 2016 (January 1 December 31, 2016), there were 215 fires and 356 spills for a
total of 571 accidents. This represents an increase of 11
accidents compared with the previous year, and accidents arestill holding steady at a high level (Fig. 1-2-1).

Trends in the number of fire and spillage accidents at facilities for hazardous materials

1. Fire Accidents
The number of fire accidents that occurred at facilities
for hazardous materials in 2016 rose by roughly 2.0-times
compared with the 107 such accidents in 1993, which had
the lowest number of fire accidents since 1989, despite thefact that the number of facilities for hazardous materials
has decreased. Accidents attributable to human factors
such as inadequate maintenance and inadequate operating
checks account for the majority of the primary causes forthese. However, accidents caused by physical factors suchas deterioration such as corrosion fatigue are also on an
upswing.。

(1) Number of Fire Accidents at Facilities for
Hazardous Materials and the Damage Done
The number of fire accidents that occurred at facilities
for hazardous materials in 2016 came to 215 (the same as
the number from the previous year), the amount ofdamages came to 1,277 million yen (a decrease of 6,679
million yen year-on-year), and they resulted in 2 deaths(an increase of 2 people year-on-year) and 53 people
injured (an increase of 22 people year-on-year) (Fig.
1-2-2).
Moreover, looking at the number of fire accidents that
occurred by type of facility for hazardous materials
reveals that the majority occurred at general outlets,
followed by manufacturing facilities and fuel supply
depots in that order. The total for these 3 facility
classifications account for 90.7% of the total accidents(Fig. 1-2-3).

13

Fig. 1-2-2

Number of fire accidents at facilities for hazardous materials and the extent of the damage
done

Fig. 1-2-3

Number of fire accidents by type of
facility for hazardous materials

Conversely, of the 215 fire accidents 109 (or 50.7% of
the total) were cases where a hazardous material served as
the causative agent for the fire (Fig. 1-2-4).
(2) Causative Factors behind the Fire Accidents at
Facilities for Hazardous Materials
A look at the causative factors behind the fire accidents
at facilities for hazardous materials that occurred in 2016
reveals that human factors accounted for 48.8%; physicalfactors accounted for 34.9%; and the total for other causes,
unknown, and under investigation came to 16.3% (Fig.
1-2-5). When viewed by ignition source, those ignited byhigh-temperature surface heat were most common at 30 (adecrease of 10 year-on-year), followed by 28 from static

14

Fig. 1-2-4

Number of fire accidents by causative
agent for the fireelectricity sparks (an increase of 5 year-on-year) and 27
from ignition due to overheating (an increase of 5
year-on-year) (Fig. 1-2-6).
(3) Fire Accidents at Unauthorized Facilities
The number of fire accidents that occurred at facilities
which were supposed to receive authorization as facilities
for hazardous materials yet which failed to do so(hereafter referred to as “unauthorized facilities”) in 2016
came to eight (a decrease of one year-on-year), and theyleft zero people dead (a decrease of two year-on-year) and
four injured (a decrease of ten year-on-year).

Fig. 1-2-5

Number of fire accidents by causative
factor(4) Fire Accidents during the Transportation ofHazardous Materials
In 2016, two fire accidents during the transportation of
hazardous materials occurred (the same as the number
from the previous year).
(5) Fire Accidents during Temporary Storage or
Handling
Continuing on from 2015, no fire accidents during the
temporary storage or handling of hazardous materials
occurred in 2016.

Fig. 1-2-7

Fig. 1-2-6

Number of fire accidents by ignition
source2. Spillage Accidents
The number of spillage accidents involving hazardous
materials that occurred at facilities for hazardous materials
in 2016 rose by roughly 2.0-times compared with the 174
such accidents in 1994, which had the lowest number of
spillage accidents since 1989, despite the fact that the
number of facilities for hazardous materials has decreased.
As for the primary causative factors, accidents attributableto human factors and those caused by physical factors both
occur in large numbers. However, of those accidents
caused by physical factors, the number caused byage-related deterioration, such as corrosion fatigue, are on
the rise.

Number of spillage accidents at facilities for hazardous materials and the extent of thedamage done

15

Fig. 1-2-8

Number of spillage accidents by typeof facility for hazardous materials(3) Spillage Accidents at Unauthorized Facilities
The number of spillage accidents that occurred atunauthorized facilities in 2016 came to six (an increase of
one year-on-year), with no casualties occurring as acontinuation from the lack of casualties in 2015.
Fig. 1-2-9(1) Number of Spillage Accidents at Facilities for
Hazardous Materials and the Damage Done
The number of spillage accidents involving hazardous
materials that occurred at facilities for hazardous materials(which did not turn into fires) in 2016 came to 356 (anincrease of 11 year-on-year), the amount of damages came
to 271 million yen (a decrease of 110 million yen
year-on-year), and they zero people dead (a decrease of
two year-on-year) but left 28 people injured (an increaseof 18 people year-on-year) (Fig. 1-2-7).
Moreover, looking at the number of spillage accidents
that occurred by type of facility for hazardous materials
reveals that the majority occurred at general outlets,
followed by outdoor storage tank facilities and transfertank storage facilities in that order (Fig. 1-2-8).
Conversely, 98.6% of the number of spillage accidents
at facilities for hazardous materials involved spills ofClass 4 hazardous materials, which consist primarily of
petroleum products. Viewing this item type reveals that
Class 1 petroleums (gasoline, etc.) accounts for most ofthese, followed by Class 2 petroleums (light oil, etc.),
Class 3 petroleums (heavy oil, etc.), and Class 4
petroleums (gear oil, etc.) in that order (Fig. 1-2-9).
(2) Causative Factors behind the Spillage
Accidents at Facilities for Hazardous Materials
A look at the causative factors behind the spillage
accidents at facilities for hazardous materials that occurredin 2016 reveals that human factors accounted for 32.9%;
physical factors accounted for 56.7%; and the total forother causes, unknown, and under investigation came to
10.4% (Fig. 1-2-10). When viewed by causative factor,
those caused by deterioration such as corrosion fatigue
were most common at 135 (an increase of 11
year-on-year), followed by 41 from inadequate operating
checks (a decrease of one year-on-year) and 28 fromoperator error (an increase of two year-on-year) (Fig.
1-2-10).
16

Number of spillage accidents bymaterial spilled(4) Spillage Accidents during the Transportationof Hazardous Materials
The number of spillage accidents that occurred during
the transportation of hazardous materials in 2016 came to11 (a decrease of one year-on-year), and while there were
no deaths as a continuation from 2015, two people were
injured (an increase of one year-on-year).

[ Current Status of Hazardous
Materials Administration ]1. Regulations on Hazardous Materials(1) Regulatory Structure for Hazardous Materials
The Fire Services Act designates substances withproperties such as: (1) Carrying a significant risk of
causing a fire, (2) Carrying a significant risk of spreadinga fire once one starts, and (3) Being difficult to extinguishwhen a fire does break out, as “hazardous materials.”*1
Enacting safety regulations for the storage, handling andtransportation of these hazardous materials has been
posited as a move that will prevent fires; protect the lives,
health, and property of the public from fires; and mitigate
the damage from fires.
Regulations concerning hazardous materials have been
instituted in a uniform manner throughout Japan through thepartial revisions to the Fire Services Act of 1959 and byenacting cabinet orders on regulations for hazardous
materials. Since then, efforts like revising the relevant
legislation to ensure that it contains content like establishingnecessary and sufficient technical standards that are safer
for facilities for hazardous materials*2 have sequentiallybeen carried out in striving to thoroughly ensure safety atsuch facilities. An overview of the regulations on hazardous
materials is shown below (Fig. 1-2-11).
Fig. 1-2-10*1.

Fig. 1-2-12

Number of facilities for hazardous
materials by classification

Number of spillage accidents by
causative factor

Hazardous materials: The Fire Services Act (Article 2-7) defines them as such: “The term ‘hazardous materials’ means the materials listed in the Names of
Items column of Appended Table 1, which have the properties listed in the Nature column of said table according to the Categories specified in said table.”
Moreover, the properties of each hazardous material are defined for each type in the “Remarks” to Appended Table I of the Fire Services Act.

[Hazardous materials listed in Appended Table I and their characteristics]
Category
Category 1

Oxidizing solids

Category 2

Combustible solids

Category 3

Spontaneously combustible
substances andwater-reactive substances

Properties
These are solids that do not burn themselves, but which have the property of
causing other substances to oxidize powerfully. When mixed with inflammablematerials, they degrade as a result of heat, impacts, or friction, and give rise to
extremely intense combustion.
These are solids that easily ignite from fire or solids that easily catch fire at
relatively low temperatures (less than 40°C). They easily catch fire, are quick to
combust, and are difficult to extinguish.
These substances spontaneously combust when exposed to air, or either
combust or generate combustible gasses when they come into contact withwater.

Category 4

Inflammable liquids

These are liquids that are inflammable.

Category 5

Self-reactive substances

Category 6

Oxidizing liquids*2.

NatureThese are solids or liquids that generate large quantities of heat at relatively low
temperatures or promote explosive reactions as a result of thermolysis andother reactions.
These are liquids that do not burn themselves, but which have the property ofpromoting the combustion of other flammable substances they are mixed with.

Representative substances
Sodium chlorate, potassium nitrate,
ammonium nitrate
Red phosphorous, sulfur, iron powder,solid alcohol, lacquer putty
Sodium, alkyl aluminum, yellow
phosphorous
Gasoline, kerosene, light oil, heavy oil,acetone, methanol
Nitroglycerin, trinitrotoluen,hydroxylamine
Perchloric acid, hydrogen peroxide,
nitric acid

Facilities for hazardous materials: These are facilities that have received authorization from municipal mayors and similar officials as facilities that store or
handle hazardous materials at or above the quantities specified in the Fire Services Act. As described below, they are classified into three types:
manufacturing facilities, storage facilities, and handling facilities.
Classification
Manufacturing facilities

Storage facilities

Handling
facilities

Details
Facilities that manufacture hazardous materials (Ex.: Chemical plants, oil refineries)

Indoor storage facilities

Store hazardous materials inside buildings

Outdoor storage tanks

Store hazardous materials in tanks located outdoors (Ex.: oil tanks)

Indoor storage tanks

Store hazardous materials in tanks located indoors

Underground storage tanks

Store hazardous materials in tanks located below the ground’s surface

Simple storage tanks

Stores hazardous materials in small tanks less than 600 L

Transfer storage tanks

Store hazardous materials in tanks that have been affixed to vehicles (Ex.: Tanker trucks)

Outdoor storage facilities

Store certain hazardous materials in containers in outdoor locations

Fuel supply depots

Handling facilities that fuel vehicles and the like (Ex.: Gas stations)

Sales handling facilities

Stores that sell containers full of hazardous materials

Transfer handling facilities

Handling facilities that transfer hazardous materials through pipes (Ex.: Pipelines)

General outlets

Handling facilities other than the three types of handling facilities above (Ex.: Boilers, private power generators)

17

Fig.1-2-11 Regulatory structure
Storage andhandling

For quantities at or over those listed in Appended Table III of
the Cabinet Order on Control of Hazardous Materials

For quantities less than those listed in Appended Table III of
the Cabinet Order on Control of Hazardous Materials

Transport

Table 1-2-1

Regulated via the Fire Services Act regardless of quantity

Trends in the number of facilities for hazardous material

Hazardous materials of volumes at or above thedesignated quantities (the quantity at which authorizationis necessary to store or handle a material as designated by
the Fire Services Act) cannot be stored or handled at
locations other than facilities for hazardous materials.
Persons attempting to establish a facility for hazardous
materials must ensure it is in compliance with thestandards regarding its location, structure, and equipment
specified by law, and receive authorization from themunicipal mayor for this.
The transportation of hazardous materials must be carriedout in accordance with the standards for ensuring safety
specified in law, regardless of how large or small thequantity is.
Standards for the storage and handling of hazardous
materials in volumes less than the designated quantities
are to be established via municipal ordinances.
(2) Current Status of Facilities for Hazardous
Materials
A. Number of Facilities for Hazardous Materials
The total number of facilities for hazardous materials(number of facilities for construction permits) as of March
31, 2017 came to 410,651 (Table 1-2-1).
A look at the share of facilities by their classification
reveals that storage facilities account for the majority at
68.4%, followed by handling facilities at 30.4% and thenmanufacturing facilities at 1.2% (Fig. 1-2-12).
B.Composition of Facilities for Hazardous
Materials by Size
As for the number of facilities by size (according to the
maximum storage quantity or the maximum handlingquantity) of the total number of facilities for hazardous
materials as of March 31, 2017, those facilities forhazardous materials that hold 50-times the designated18

Regulated via the Fire Services Act as facilities forhazardous materials
Regulated via the Fire Services Act as temporary storage
or handling in the event it is stored or handled on an
extraordinary basis
Regulated via municipal ordinances(As of March 31 of each year)

quantities or less account for 75.8% of the total (Fig.
1-2-13).
Fig. 1-2-13

Composition rate of facilities forhazardous materials by size

(3) Hazardous Material Engineers
Hazardous material engineers are classified into three
types. Class A engineers can handle all hazardous
materials, Class B engineers can handle types ofhazardous materials for which they have obtained
approval, and Class C engineers can handle designatedhazardous materials from among the type 4. Whenhazardous material engineers or someone else handles
hazardous materials at facilities for hazardous materials, aClass A or Class B hazardous material engineer must bepresent to ensure safety.
As of March 31, 2017 the (cumulative) total number ofpeople who have passed the hazardous material engineer
test since the hazardous material engineer system waslaunched came to 9,282,038 people. They play a significant
role in ensuring safety at facilities for hazardous materials.
Table 1-2-14

A. Hazardous Material Engineer Tests
Hazardous material engineer tests were held 607 times
throughout Japan in FY2016 (an increase of 29
year-on-year). They were taken by 388,505 people (adecrease of 12,591 people year-on-year), with 145,016
people passing (a decrease of 7,095 people year-on-year)
for an average pass rate of roughly 37.3% (a decrease of
0.6 points year-on-year) (Table 1-2-14).
Viewing the situation by test type and category reveals
that 68.2% of the people took the test for Class B, Type 4,followed by Class C at 8.9% of the total. These two test
types accounted for 77.1% of the total. The number ofpeople who passed these two test types accounted for
64.3% of the total.

Holding of tests for hazardous material engineers

B.Safety Training Courses
As a general rule, the hazardous material engineers
engaged in handling hazardous materials at facilities forhazardous materials must take a training course on safety
for handling hazardous materials offered by prefectural
governors (safety training courses) within each three year
period (starting from April 1, 2012, within three years
from the first April 1 since the date on which thehazardous material engineer license was issued or the datethey took the safety training course).
In FY2016, safety training courses were held a total of
1,467 times throughout Japan (an increase of 60 times
year-on-year), and were attended by 178,002 people (adecrease of 841 people year-on-year) (Table 1-2-2).
(4) Safety Systems at Offices
As of March 31, 2017, the total number of businessestablishments that owned facilities for hazardous
materials came to 188,185 throughout Japan. In an effort
to establish safety systems at business establishments, it
has been mandated that the owners of facilities forhazardous materials that store or handle hazardous
materials at or above certain quantities must carry out
certain obligations. These include appointing hazardous
materials security superintendents, appointing safety

officers for facilities for hazardous materials (1,640
business establishments), and preparing fire and disasterprevention rules (44,379 business establishments).
Moreover, it has been mandated that said businessestablishments that own certain facilities for hazardous
materials and that store or handle hazardous materials at or
above certain quantities must establish fire defense
organizations for self protection (69 businessestablishments) and appoint hazardous material safety
supervising managers (209 business establishments).
(5) Safety Inspections
It has been mandated that the owners of outdoor storage
tanks and transfer handling facilities at or over a certain
size must undergo inspections on the safety of facilities forhazardous materials performed by municipal mayors andsimilar officials (safety inspections) at regular fixedintervals according to factors like the facilities’ size.
In FY2016, 265 safety inspections were performed, of
which 259 involved outdoor storage tanks and 6 involved
transfer handling facilities.
(6) Onsite Inspections and Orders
Municipal mayors and similar officials can perform
onsite inspections on facilities for hazardous materials andother such facilities to ensure that their installation,
19

construction, and establishment of equipment, as well as
storage or handling of hazardous materials, are incompliance with the standards established in the Fire
Table 1-2-2

Services Act. These can be carried out when said official
deems it necessary to prevent fires that arise consequent
upon the storage or handling of hazardous materials.

Number of attendees at safety training courses for hazardous material engineers and a
breakdown of this by type of hazardous material engineer certifications(As of March 31 of each FY)

Fig.1-2-15 Trends in orders for measures related to facilities for hazardous materials

In FY2016, onsite inspections were carried out a total of
201,667 times at 183,783 facilities for hazardous materials.
In cases where violations of the Fire Services Act werediscovered as a result of the onsite inspections, thesemunicipal mayors and other officials can issue a variety ofdifferent orders to the owners of said facilities forhazardous materials. These include orders to comply withregulations on storage and handling, orders to takemeasures related to standards for installing, constructing,or establishing equipment, and more.
In FY2016 municipal mayors or similar officials issued
such orders to take measures in 231 cases. (Fig. 1-2-15)

2. Securing Petroleum Pipelines(1) Safety Regulations for the Petroleum Pipeline
Business
Regarding those petroleum pipelines which are used totransport petroleum in response to general demand, thecompetent minister must formulate basic plans and listen to theopinions of the Minister of Internal Affairs and
20

Communications regarding business licenses in order to ensure
safety pursuant to the Petroleum Pipeline Business Act enacted
in 1972. What is more, the Minister of Internal Affairs andCommunications provides licenses for construction plans,performs completion inspections, provides licenses for safety
regulations, performs safety inspections, and more.
The facilities to which the Petroleum Pipeline BusinessAct apply currently only include the pipelines transporting
airplane fuel to Narita International Airport, with otherpipelines regulated as transfer handling facilities under theFire Services Act.
(2) Ensuring the Safety of Petroleum Pipelines
Safety inspections are carried out periodically on thepipelines transporting airplane fuel to Narita International
Airport pursuant to the Petroleum Pipeline Business Act.
In addition, the business operators must do everything
they possibly can to ensure safety, such as having
maintenance and inspections carried out in accordancewith the technical standards established by law.

Chapter 1 Current Status and Challenges for Disasters

3 Countermeasures to Disasters at Petroleum Industrial Complexes

Section[ Current Status and Recent Trends in Disasters at
Petroleum Industrial Complexes ]1. Number of Accidents and Damage
The total number of accidents that occurred at specified
business establishments*1 in petroleum industrial
complexes and other special disaster prevention areas (seeWhite Paper P102;
hereafter referred to as “special disaster prevention areas”)
in 2016 came to 252. A breakdown of this reveals that there
were two accidents from earthquakes and tsunamis(hereafter referred to as “earthquake-induced accidents”)
and 250 accidents that were not earthquake-induced(hereafter referred to as “general accidents”). The numberof earthquake-induced accidents increased by one overthose from the previous year (one), while general accidents
increased by 16 from the previous year (234) (Fig. 1-3-1).
Looking at this by type of accident reveals there were
120 fires (an increase of 13 year-on-year), 6 explosions (adecrease of 1 year-on-year), 121 leaks (an increase of 3
year-on-year), and 5 other accidents (an increase of 2
year-on-year) (Table 1-3-1).
Fig. 1-3-1

*1

*2

.

Looking at trends in the number of general accidents
that have occurred reveals that these had been on adownswing since the enactment of the Act on thePrevention of Disaster in Petroleum Industrial Complexes
and Other Petroleum Facilities. However, since 2016 they
have been trending at a high level of more than 200 such
accidents a year.
The number of casualties from general accidents that
occurred in 2016 came to 0 deaths and 32 injuries.
What is more, looking at the causes behind general
accidents reveals that physical factors such as corrosion
and other types of deterioration accounted for 137 of theaccidents (54.8%), while human factors such as
inadequate operation and maintenance accounted for 102(40.8%).

2. Characteristics of Accidents(1) Number of General Accidents by Type ofSpecified Business Establishment
Looking at the number of general accidents by type of
specified business establishments reveals that Class 1
business establishments accounted for 201 (176 of whichwere at layout business establishments*2), which accountfor 80.4% of the total (Table 1-3-2).

Trends in the number of accidents that occurred at petrochemical complexes

Specified business establishments: These refer to Class 1 business establishments (business establishments where 10,000 kiloliters of petroleum or moreare stored or handled, or where 2 million cubic meters of high-pressure gas or more are processed) and Class 2 business establishments (businessestablishments where 1,000 kiloliters of petroleum or more are stored or handled, or where 200,000 cubic meters of high-pressure gas or more areprocessed).
Layout business establishments: Business establishments from among Class 1 business establishments that handle both petroleum and high-pressuregases. Said business establishments are subject to layout regulations stipulating that their sites must be segmented off into six types of sections according
to their purpose, with these including manufacturing facility sections and storage facility sections (see P105).

21

Table 1-3-1(Notes)12

12

Number of General Accidents by Type of Specified Business Establishment(During 2016)

Prepared based on the Overview of Accidents at Specified Business Establishments in Petroleum Industrial Complexes and Other Special
Disaster Prevention Areas in 2016
The number of business establishments is current as of April 1, 2016

(2) Number of General Accidents at Specified
Business Establishments by Business Category
As for the number of general accidents at specified
business establishments by business category, there were 77
chemical industry-related accidents (30.8%), 76 petroleum
and coal products manufacturing industry-related accidents(30.4%), 45 steel industry-related accidents (18.0%), 24
electrical industry-related accidents (9.6%), and 28
accidents in other business categories (11.2%).

[ Current Status of Damage Countermeasures at
Petroleum Industrial Complexes ]In order to prevent disasters from occurring andspreading at special disaster prevention areas, where large
quantities of petroleum and high pressure gasses areconcentrated, efforts are made to establish comprehensive
disaster prevention structures for these. This includes byapplying the various regulations from the Fire Services
Act, the High Pressure Gas Safety Act, the Industrial
Safety and Health Act, the Act on Prevention of Marine
Pollution and Maritime Disasters, and others, as well as byapplying the regulations from the Act on the Prevention ofDisaster in Petroleum Industrial Complexes and Other
Petroleum Facilities regarding issues like thearrangements of the various facility sections and disasterprevention equipment.

22(During each year)

Prepared based on the Overview of Accidents at Specified Business Establishments in Petroleum Industrial Complexes and Other Special
Disaster Prevention Areas in 2016
Of the accidents that occurred in 2016, two were earthquake-induced accidents.

Table 1-3-2(Notes)Occurrence of Accidents at Petrochemical Complexes

1. Current Status of Petroleum Industrial
Complexes and Other Special
Disaster Prevention Areas
As of April 1, 2017, 83 areas in which large quantities of
petroleum or high pressure gas at or above certain quantities
have been designated as special disaster prevention areas in
102 municipalities in 32 prefectures based on the Act on thePrevention of Disaster in Petroleum Industrial Complexes
and Other Petroleum Facilities (Fig. 1-3-2). These special
disaster prevention areas are under the jurisdiction of 90 fire
defense headquarters.
What is more, 679 business establishments serve as
specified business establishments subject to the regulationsof the Act on the Prevention of Disaster in Petroleum
Industrial Complexes and Other Petroleum Facilities. Of
these, 353 are Class 1 business establishments (including
168 layout business establishments) and 326 are Class 2
business establishments.

Fig.1-3-2

Designation Status for Petroleum Industrial Complexes and Other Special Disaster
Prevention Areas23

2. Disaster Prevention Structures at
Prefectures and Firefighting Agencies(1) Establishing Disaster Prevention Schemes
The prefectures that contain special disaster prevention
areas are establishing disaster prevention structures in acomprehensive and systematic manner based on the Act
on the Prevention of Disaster in Petroleum Industrial
Complexes and Other Petroleum Facilities. This is being
done through concerted efforts together with relevant
agencies centering primarily on disaster prevention
headquarters at petroleum industrial complexes and otherlocations (hereafter referred to as “disaster prevention
headquarters”).
The disaster prevention headquarters carry out
operations such as preparing disaster prevention plans for
petroleum industrial complexes and other locations(hereafter referred to as “disaster prevention plans”),
liaising and coordinating with relevant agencies whendisasters strike, and promoting research studies on disasterprevention.
(2) Emergency Responses when Disasters Occur
When disasters occur in special disaster prevention areas,
emergency responses consist of initiatives carried out in aconcerted manner by the prefecture, municipality, related
agencies, specified business operators and others under theleadership of the disaster prevention headquarters, as
stipulated by the disaster prevention plan.
When disasters occur, firefighting agencies carry out
defense activities, give instructions regarding the activities
of disaster prevention organizations for self-defense, andcarry out other important roles.
(3) Maintaining the Firefighting Capabilities ofMunicipalities Containing Special Disaster
Prevention Areas
There is the concern that disasters that occur within
special disaster prevention areas will be large in scale andof a specialized type. Therefore, it is important to maintainfirefighting capabilities in order to respond to said
disasters.
Through the Firefighting Maintenance Policies, which
are based on municipal firefighting agencies, the FDMA
denotes those firefighting capabilities that must be
retained in order to handle disasters involving special
disaster prevention areas, and strives to maintain these. In
addition, the FDMA has instituted the Emergency
Response Unit for Disasters with Energy and Industrial
Infrastructure (Dragon Hyper Command Unit) structure
under the Emergency Fire Response Teams, and carriesout research and development on sophisticated firefighting
robots.

*3

*4

*5

*6

24

As of April 1, 2017, 73 large chemical firetrucks, 57 large
elevated water trucks, 88 foam solution transport vehicles,
24 large elevated chemical water trucks, 2,975kl of 3%
fire-extinguishing foam, 653kl of 6% fire-extinguishingfoam, 23 fireboats, and other such equipment had been
allocated to firefighting agencies in municipalities
containing special disaster prevention areas. Likewise, 28
foam solution storage facilities, 5 portable foam cannons,
and other such equipment has been allocated toprefectures containing special disaster prevention areas inorder to supplement their municipal firefighting
capabilities, as well as enhance and strengthen the disasterprevention structures of said special disaster prevention
areas.

3. Disaster Prevention Structures at
Specified Business Establishments(1) Establishing Disaster Prevention
Organizations for Self-defense
The Act on the Prevention of Disaster in Petroleum
Industrial Complexes and Other Petroleum Facilities
mandates that those operators that establish specified
business establishments that contain special disasterprevention areas (specified business operators) must set up
disaster prevention organizations for self-defense, equip
fire defense equipment, appoint disaster protection
managers, formulate disaster prevention regulations, andso forth. It also stipulates that they are to establish joint
disaster prevention associations,*3 wide-area joint disasterprevention associations,*4 and special disaster prevention
area councils for petroleum industrial complexes and thelike (hereafter referred to as “area councils”)*5 in order toestablish disaster prevention structures through the
combined efforts of the specified business establishments.
As of April 1, 2017, disaster prevention organizations
for self-defense had been established at every specified
business establishment (679 business establishments), and73 joint disaster prevention associations, 11 wide-area
joint disaster prevention associations, and 55 area councils
had also been established. These disaster prevention
organizations for self-defense, joint disaster prevention
associations, and wide-area joint disaster prevention
associations are constantly equipped with 5,527 disasterprevention personnel, 88 large chemical fire trucks, 51
large, elevated water trucks, 133 foam solution transport
vehicles, 111 large, elevated chemical water trucks, 24high capacity foam cannons, 25 oil recovery vessels, andmore.
What is more, the law states that these specified
business establishments must establish embankments toprevent oil spills, outdoor water supply equipment for
firefighting, and emergency notification systems according

Joint disaster prevention associations: Disaster prevention associations jointly established by the specified business operators involved with specified
business establishments containing a single special disaster prevention area in order to carry out some of the tasks of the disaster prevention
organization for self-defense.
Wide-area joint disaster prevention associations: Joint disaster prevention associations covering a wide area jointly established by specified business
operators involved with specified business establishments containing areas in which there are two or more special disaster prevention areas to carryout tasks related to disaster prevention activities by using large volume foam cannons and other equipment.
Special disaster prevention area councils for petroleum industrial complexes and the like: These are councils established with the objective of having
specified business operators related to specified business establishments located in a single special disaster prevention area come together to jointly
draft independent standards related to preventing disasters from occurring and carrying out joint disaster prevention drills.
Ring fires: Fires that occur at floating roof outdoor storage tanks all the way around the tank in the gap between the floating roof and the tank’s sidepanel before spreading out in a ring pattern.

to their size. As of April 1, 2017, 142 businessestablishments had installed embankments to prevent oil
spills, 500 had installed outdoor water supply equipment
for firefighting, and 481 had installed emergency
notification systems, respectively.
(2) Equipping High Capacity Foam Systems
During the Tokachi-Oki Earthquake that occurred in
September 2003, damage that included damage to and oilleaks from numerous outdoor storage tanks occurred at an
oil refining business establishment in Tomakomai City. In
addition, approximately 54 hours after the earthquake
struck all of the floating roof outdoor storage tanks caught
fire when the floating roof sank.
Before this disaster struck, it had been assumed that thefires that would occur at floating roof outdoor storage
tanks would be ring fires.*6 But out of consideration for
the risk of earthquakes occurring in Japan, the assumption
for a disaster had to be that a fire would spread to all of
the tanks.
In light of this, the Act on the Prevention of Disaster inPetroleum Industrial Complexes and Other Petroleum
Facilities was revised in June 2004 and the order for theenforcement of this law was revised in November 2005 tostrengthen and enhance disaster prevention structures.
Furthermore, it was mandated that specified businessestablishments must equip themselves with high capacity
foam systems, which were a new type of firefighting
equipment then, by November 2008 in order to respond to
fires that fully envelop floating roof outdoor storage tanks.
High capacity foam systems are a type of firefighting
equipment that consist of high capacity foam cannons,
feed pumps, foam mixers, and hoses. They have thecapacity to spray more than 10,000 liters of foam per
minute. A single high capacity foam cannon is capable ofspraying anywhere from three to ten times as much foam
as a conventional three-part set (consisting of a large
chemical firetruck, large, elevated water truck, and a foam
solution transport vehicle).
At present, high capacity foam systems with thecapacity to spray anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 liters
per minute are stationed at 12 wide-area joint disasterprevention associations throughout Japan.

Spraying drills through the use of the high capacity
foam system*7(3) Enhancing Disaster Prevention Structures for
Self-defense
The fact that petroleum industrial complexes handle large
quantities of hazardous materials and the like and haveequipment that is complexly interconnected makes disasterprevention activities difficult, and as such carries the riskthat this will result in enormous damage. Therefore, whensuch disasters occur, disaster prevention organizations for
self-defense and joint disaster prevention associations mustcarry out precise disaster prevention activities. In addition,
the disaster prevention personnel responsible for said
activities require extensive knowledge and skills.
The FDMA details the disaster prevention activities ofdisaster prevention organizations for self-defense andothers in reports like the Introduction to Disaster
Prevention
Activities
for
DisasterPrevention
Organizations for Self-defense, Guidelines for Education
and Drills for Disaster Prevention Personnel, Disaster
Prevention Activities Using High Capacity Foam Systems,
and more. In FY2016 and FY2017 the FDMA held the
Research and Review Committee on Modalities for
Education and Training for Disaster Prevention
Organizations for Self-defense and Others with the aim ofpreparing standardized educational texts and enhancing
both human resource development for disaster prevention
personnel and disaster prevention structures.

4. Layout Regulations for Business
Establishments(1) Layout Regulations
Just regulating each individual facility at the businessestablishments that form petroleum industrial complexes
as discrete units is not enough to prevent the spread ofdamage at such complexes. Rather, measures must be
taken by business establishments on the whole from theperspective of mitigating damage.
Therefore, the Act on the Prevention of Disaster inPetroleum Industrial Complexes and Other Petroleum
Facilities mandates that layout business establishments
must establish certain standards related to establishingfacility areas on their sites and ensuring passageways. It
also mandates that in cases like where businessestablishments are newly established or change theirfacility area layouts, they must provide notification of theplans for this. It also stipulates that they must undergo
confirmation after these have been completed to determine
whether or not they are consistent with the relevant plans.
The quantities of oil stored and handled and thequantities of high pressure gas processed at layout
business establishments came to roughly 60% and 98%,
respectively, of that for the specified businessestablishments as a whole (as of April 1, 2017).
(2) Status for New Establishment and Other
Notifications
The number of notifications for new establishments of orchanges to layout business establishments in FY2016
came to 8, while the number of confirmations in the same
year came to 9 (Fig. 1-3-3).

Abnormal phenomena: Fires, explosions, spills of oil and other substances, and other such abnormal phenomena at specified business establishments25

5. Other Disaster Countermeasures(1) Establishing Disaster Response Structures
The Act on the Prevention of Disaster in Petroleum
Industrial Complexes and Other Petroleum Facilities statesthat specified business operators must report tofirefighting agencies or locations specified by municipal
mayors immediately when any abnormal phenomena
occurs.*7 It also mandates that disaster prevention
organizations for self-defense, joint disaster prevention
associations, and wide-area joint disaster prevention
associations must take the necessary measures in order toprevent disasters from occurring and spreading.

(2) Establishing Green Buffer Zones for Disaster
Prevention
Regulations were established in the Act on thePrevention of Disaster in Petroleum Industrial Complexes
and Other Petroleum Facilities in relation to matters like
drafting installation plans, the share of costs to be borneby business operators, and special financial measures forgreen buffer zones for disaster prevention established by
local governments in the vicinities around special disasterprevention areas in order to prevent damage in said areasfrom spreading to the surrounding regions.

Table 1-3-3 Status for the notification and confirmation of new business establishments subject tolayout regulations

26

Chapter 2 Fire and Disaster Prevention Organizations and Activities

1 Firefighting Structures

Section

1. Fire Defense Organizations(1) Standing Firefighting Agencies
Standing firefighting agencies refer to the fire defense
headquarters and fire stations established in municipalities
that are staffed by full-time personnel. As of April 1, 2017,
there were 732 fire defense headquarters and 1,718 firestations established throughout Japan (Table 2-1-1).
There are 163,814 firefighters, of which 4,802 are women(Table 2-1-1, Fig. 2-1-1).
The current firefighting structures found in municipalities
can largely be categorized into: [1] Municipalities with both
fire defense headquarters and fire stations (so-called
standing fire defense) as well as volunteer fire corps(so-called non-standing fire defense), and [2] Towns andvillages with only volunteer fire corps.
As of April 1, 2017, 1,690 municipalities had switched over
to a standing fire defense structure, whereas 29 towns andvillages had failed to do so. This brings the percentage ofmunicipalities that have switched over to a standing fire
defense structure (standing ratio) to 98.3% (100% for cities and96.9% for towns/villages). This conversion has taken placevirtually nationwide, barring some towns and villages inmountainous regions or on remote islands, with 99.9% of the
population now covered by standing fire defense structures.
Of these, there have been 290 fire defense headquarters
established by special district authorities or extended
associations (22 of which were established by extended
associations). The 1,108 municipalities that haveorganized these (367 cities, 601 towns, and 140 villages)
correspond to 65.6% of the total number of municipalities
that have switched to a standing fire defense structure.
Table 2-1-1(Note)

What is more, the number of municipalities outsourcing
this work comes to 140 (35 cities, 85 towns, and 20
villages), which corresponds to 8.3% of the total numberof municipalities that have switched to a standing fire
defense structure (Fig. 2-1-2).
(2) Volunteer Fire Corps
Volunteer fire corps are municipal, non-standing
firefighting agencies. The volunteer firefighters thatcomprise their members have other main occupations, andengage in fire and disaster defense activities based on theirlove for their hometown and a desire to protect it under the
thinking that they should be the ones to protect their own
communities themselves. They do this as local
government employees in special part-time positions
vested with authority and responsibility.
As of April 1, 2017, the number of volunteer fire corps
throughout Japan came to 2,209, while their volunteer
members numbered 850,331. They have been establishedin every municipality (Table 2-1-1, Fig. 2-1-1).
Volunteer fire corps have the unique qualities of being:
・Rooted in local communities (volunteers live or workwithin the jurisdiction)
・Able to mobilize personnel (there are roughly 5.2-times
the number of volunteers as there are regular
firefighters)
・Able to respond at a moment’s notice (volunteers
acquire the skills and knowledge to respond to disasters
through routine education and training)

Current status of municipal fire defense organizations(As of April 1 of each year)

Prepared based on the Survey of the Current Status of Fire Prevention and Earthquake Countermeasures and the Report on Personnel Changes
concerning Fire Defense Headquarters and Volunteer Fire Corps.

27

Fig. 2-1-1

Trends in the number of firefighters

Fig. 2-1-2

Breakdown of the establishment method for fire defense headquarters

By harnessing these qualities, they are able to engage in theinitial firefighting when fires break out and deal with any
residual fires, as well as sound warnings and carry out rescue
activities when storm and flood disasters occur. In addition,
when large-scale disasters occur, they engage in activities likeassisting with resident evacuations and safeguarding against
disasters, as well as giving instructions to evacuated residents
in cases where they safeguard civilians. Volunteer fire corps
play a major role in ensuring the safety and security of theircommunities, such as by overseeing fire defense activities inan across-the-board manner.
This is particularly true in towns and villages without astanding fire defense structure, where fire defense
headquarters and fire stations have not been established.
What is more, the volunteer fire corps engage in activities
that are rooted in local communities during times ofnormalcy, such as raising awareness of fire prevention anddisseminating first-aid treatment. They also play a majorrole in improving local fire prevention capabilities andrevitalizing local communities.
28

2. Fire and Disaster Defense Facilities(1) Maintenance of Fire Trucks and Other
Equipment
Fire defense headquarters and fire stations are equippedwith the fire pump vehicles, ladder-equipped vehicles(including vehicles with folding ladders), chemical fire
trucks, ambulances, rescue vehicles, fire protection
helicopters, and other equipment that they need for theirfirefighting activities.
In addition, volunteer fire corps are equipped withvehicles such as fire pump vehicles, small power pumptransport vehicles, and transport vehicles for rescue
supplies (Table 2-1-2).

Table 2-1-2

Number of firefighting vehicles
owned(As of April 1, 2017) (Units: vehicles, ships, machines)(Note)*2

Fig. 2-1-3

Number of reports to 119 (by thereported details)

Fig. 2-1-4

Number of reports to 119 (by type of
connection)

Prepared based on the Survey of the Current Status of Fire
Prevention and Earthquake Countermeasures, the Survey on the
Implementation Status of Emergency Services, and the Survey
on the Implementation Status of Rescue Work.

(2) Fire Defense Communication Equipment
In order to minimize the damage from fires and otherdisasters, it is important to quickly become aware of said fires
and disasters and have firefighting agencies rapidly arrive at thescene. In addition, it is also important to collect informationand quickly and clearly issue instructions and orders at thescene of the incident. Fire defense communication equipment
plays an enormous role in such contexts. Such equipment
includes dedicated phone lines for reporting fires, fire defense
communication networks, and more.
A. Calls to 119
Dedicated phone lines for reporting fires refer todedicated phone lines whereby firefighting agencies canreceive emergency reports related to fires and medical
emergencies from people providing notification.
The telecommunication number related to emergency
reports to firefighting agencies has been set as “119” as per
regulations on telecommunication numbers (see“Fig.
2-10-2. Overview of the fire and disaster defense
communication network” on P230).
The number of incidents reported to 119 throughout
2016 came to 8,360,872. A breakdown of the reported
details shows that the number of reported cases related to
medical emergencies and rescues accounted for 69.4% of
the total (Fig. 2-1-3).
Following the recent popularization of cell phones andIP phones*1 (hereafter referred to as “cell and other typesof phones”), the number of reports to 119 from cell andother types of phones have risen, with their share versus
the total number of reports coming to 41.6% and 23.8%,
respectively (Fig. 2-1-4).
(A) Location Information Notifications for Emergency
Reports to 119*1

The firefighting agencies that receive reports from 119
hear out the status at the scene of the disaster andinformation on the disaster through their back-and-forthwith the person providing notification. Firefighting
agencies that have adopted advanced fire defense
command centers can display location information such as
the reported location on a map over a monitor when theyreceive reports to 119.

The Location Information Notification System, which
notifies firefighting agencies of the location informationfrom the scenes where calls to 119 originate from cell
phones and other sources, began operating in April 2007.
The Integrated Location Information Notification System,
which integrates this Location Information Notification
System with the New Origin Location Display System*2that had been operating since before to provide
notifications from landline phones, began operating in
October 2009.

IP (Internet Protocol) phones: A voice call service offered through the use of IP technology at the contact point between the telephone network and thephone terminals
New Origin Location Display System: This is a system that notifies fire defense headquarters of the location information (address information) of theperson making a report with regards to 119 reports from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West
Corporation landline phones.

29

As of April 1, 2017, the number of fire defense
headquarters that are now able to determine the location
information when they receive 119 reports from cell andother types of phones is now 708 (of which 592
headquarters use the Integrated Location Information
Notification System) as a result of the Location
Information Notification System and Integrated Location
Information Notification System.
(B) Nonverbal Reports
Reports to 119 are predicated on being communicatedverbally. As such, when persons with hearing or speech
impairments report emergencies, they are accommodated
via alternative, nonverbal means through the use of FAX
or email.
However, there are a number of problems with these
sorts of alternative means, such as the fact that in somecases reports can only be provided from locations
equipped with FAX machines, and that it takes time toconvey the address and status of the person providing thereport. Therefore, the FDMA held meetings of theCommittee on the Diversification of 119 Reports between
FY2015 and FY2016. This committee considered
modalities for a new system (Net 119 Emergency Report
System) whereby persons with hearing or speech
impairments can easily provide reports nonverbally atanytime and from anywhere through the use ofsmartphones or similar devices. In March 2017, thecommittee compiled together standard specifications for asystem that should be adopted by fire departments
throughout Japan in the future.
B. Fire Defense Communications Networks
Fire and emergency radios are an important piece ofequipment. They are considered necessary for situations
where a fire defense headquarters needs to provide
instructions to fire brigades, rescue crews, and others who
are active at the scenes of disasters, or for situations whereorders are to be given and information collected at thescenes of fires. What is more, fire defense phone lines are
dedicated phone lines that are used for communications
such as simultaneously relaying information and orders
when reports are received between fire defense
headquarters, fire stations, and branch offices.
On the other hand, the image information recorded by
the cameras equipped on fire protection helicopters areused nationwide and in local regions through the use ofsatellite communication networks.

(3) Water Sources for Firefighting
Water sources for firefighting are an absolutely crucialcomponent, together with fire trucks and other equipment,
when it comes to carrying out firefighting activities.
Generally speaking, these are categorized into artificial
sources like fire hydrants and fire cisterns, as well as
natural sources like rivers, ponds, oceans, and lakes.
With artificial sources, a certain amount of water can be
drawn up at any time from near the location where the fire
breaks out, and so they are frequently used as water
sources for firefighting during such activities. Ever since
the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in particular, theinstallation of fire cisterns and other equipment that has
been seismically-reinforced against earthquakes has been
actively promoted as a countermeasure for water sources
for firefighting to combat large-scale earthquakes. In 2014
the Standards for Water Sources for Firefighting (FDMA
Bulletin No. 7 from 1964) were revised to allow for theirinstallation in a systematic manner (Table 2-1-3).
What is more, with natural water sources it is often thecase that water can be taken in over a long period of time
without any restrictions on the amount that can be taken.
As such, these sources play an important role as a water
source for firefighting together with artificial water
sources. The other side of the coin is that there aresometimes cases where these water sources cannot be used
due to the season, or where restrictions are placed onwhere the water can be drawn from or the like. Therefore,
an appropriate combination of both artificial and natural
water sources must be established when it comes to setting
in place water sources for firefighting.
Table 2-1-3(As of April 1 of each year)(Notes)1230

Number of water sources for
firefighting installed (mainly
artificial water sources)

Prepared based on the Survey of the Current Status of Fire
Prevention and Earthquake Countermeasures.
The numbers in parentheses show the proportion, andtheir unit is %.

Chapter 2 Fire and Disaster Prevention Organizations and Activities

Section4 Education and Training Structures

1. Education and Training for
Firefighters
It is essential to improve the knowledge and skills offirefighters to enable them to appropriately handle theincreasingly diverse disaster and emergency services andincreasing sophistication of fire prevention services. As
such, education and training for firefighters is incredibly
important
Education and training for firefighters is offered by eachfire defense headquarters, fire stations, and volunteer fire
corps, as well as by the national government through theFire and Disaster Management College and the fire
academies in the various prefectures. In addition to these,
there are also emergency medical technician (EMT)
training institutes that offer education designed to haverescue workers from around the country acquire national
qualifications as EMTs.
As this indicates, the national government, prefectures,municipalities, and others each undertake their own
respective functions as they work together in a cooperative
manner to provide education and training for firefighters.

2. On-the-job Training
Every firefighting agency carries out systematic
education and training (on-the-job training) based on theirrespective regional characteristics on a routine basis. In
particular, those firefighters who are required to perform
rigorous team activities based on instructions and orders at
the scenes of dangerous disasters require a sense of duty
and abundance of energy and vigor in order to carry out
their professional duties. Therefore, fire defense
headquarters work to improve their knowledge and skills
and lift their morale through various types of educationand training.
The firefighting agencies work to promote training
activities that are safe and effective. This is done throughefforts like the establishment of standards for on-the-job
training at the FDMA in the form of the Standards for Fire
Development Training Etiquette, Standards for
Firefighting Techniques, and Standards for Fire andRescue Techniques, as well as safety management
manuals both for during drills and during security
activities.

3. Education and Training at Fire
Academies(1) Establishment of Fire Academies
The provisions of Article 51 of the Fire Organization
Act mandate that prefectures must establish fire academies
independently or jointly, except in cases where financial
circumstances or other special circumstances prevent themfrom doing so. In addition, the provisions stipulate that
ordinance-designated cities can also establish fire
academies independently or jointly together with theprefectures.

As of April 1, 2017, fire academies had been establishedin all 47 prefectures, seven ordinance-designated cities(Sapporo, Chiba, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Kobe, andFukuoka), and in the Tokyo Fire Department for a total of
55 such academies throughout Japan (in the Tokyo
Metropolitan Region, there are two schools that have been
jointly established: The Tokyo Metropolitan Fire Defense
Training Center and the Tokyo Fire Department’s Fire
Academy).
The FDMA has established the Standards for the
Establishment, Personnel, and Operation of Fire
Academies with the objective being to work to establish
and run fire academies. It also makes progress in ensuring
and improving the level of education and training at thefire academies.
(2) Types of Education and Training
The Education and Training Standards for Fire Academies
have been established to serve as standards for theeducation and training offered at fire academies. The fire
academies formulate specific curricula out of respect for
the “Attainment objectives” stipulated in the standards andby using the “Standard subjects and class hours” foundtherein as reference guidelines. The types of education andtraining offered include initial education, specialized
education, management education, and special education
for firefighters, as well as basic education, specialized
education, management education, and special educationfor volunteer firefighters.
・Initial education refers to foundational education andtraining offered to all newly-hired firefighters. The
standards designate that 800 hours of class time isrequired for this.
・Basic education refers to basic education and training
offered to those people who must acquire knowledge
and skills as volunteer firefighters after joining a
volunteer fire corps due to their limited experience. The
standards designate that 24 hours of class time isrequired for this.
・Specialized education refers to expert education andtraining related to specific fields offered to active duty
firefighters and mainly those volunteer firefighters who
have completed their basic education.
・Management education refers to the education andtraining that is generally required for fire defense
management, and is offered to management personnel
and prospective candidates expected to advance onto
management.
・Special education refers to education offered for special
objectives that fall outside the bounds of the educationand training mentioned above.
(3) Enhancing and Strengthening the Education
and Training at Fire Academies
Sophisticated firefighting activities are required due tothe increasing size and complexity of disasters. In addition,
prevention work also continues to grow increasingly31sophisticated and specialized as a result of revisions to fire
defense laws and ordinances.
Against this background, the knowledge and skills that
firefighters need in order to properly carry out theirprofessional duties must be further improved upon.
Therefore, partial revisions were made to both theStandards for the Establishment, Personnel, and Operationof Fire Academies and the Education and Training
Standards for Fire Academies in March 2015 with the goalof working to enhance and strengthen the education andtraining offered at fire academies.
As part of the revisions, facilities capable of holding
practical training by simulating actual disasters (simulated
firefighting training equipment, earthquake training
facilities, etc.) were added as facilities that should be set inplace as standard practice. In addition, the method for
calculating the number of teaching personnel at fire
academies was revised out of consideration for safety
management aspects, and revisions were also carried out
regarding the proper allocation of class subjects and classhours based on the challenges of and need for fire defense.
(4) Holding of Education and Training
In FY2016 a total of 33,224 firefighters attended
education and training at fire academies (Table 2-4-1). As
for volunteer firefighters, in FY2016 a total of 41,698
attended education and training either at fire academies or
through the dispatch of teachers from said academies(Table 2-4-2).
Since volunteer firefighters each have their own main
occupations, in cases where it is determined that it will bedifficult to adequately provide them with education andtraining at a fire academy, it has been stipulated thatteachers from said academies can be dispatched locally toprovide education and training. Many of the fire
academies have adopted this approach.
What is more, education and training is also provided byfire academies to people other than volunteer fire corps
members to the extent that doing so does not interfere withthe education and training of said members. In FY2016,
education and training was provided to a total of 10,369
people, including personnel from local public bodies, local
voluntary disaster prevention organizations, women’s(female) firefighting clubs, and voluntary firefightingorganizations at companies.

4. Education and Training and Technical
Assistance at the Fire and Disaster
Management College
The Fire and Disaster Management College provides theadvanced education and training needed for management
to the personnel engaged in firefighting operations at thenational and prefectural level, as well as to municipal
volunteer fire corps members. In addition, it also provides
the necessary technical assistance related to education andtraining for fire academies at the prefectural level.

32

Table 2-4-1

Holding of education and training
aimed at firefighters(People)(Notes)

Prepared based on the Survey on Education and Training at Fire
Academies.

Table 2-4-2

Holding of education and training
aimed at volunteer firefighters(People)(Notes)

Prepared based on the Survey on Education and Training at Fire
Academies.
* Graduates of both the Local Command Course and the Branch Supervisor
Course were counted as having completed the Supervisory Management
Class.
* The Intermediate Management Class was replaced with the Supervisory
Management Class through the partial revisions to the education andtraining standards for fire academies from March 2014.

(1) Facilities and Equipment
The Fire and Disaster Management College's educationand training facilities consist of a main building, asecondary building, training facilities, and a dormitory.
The main building contains a large classroom that canaccommodate 250 people, three regular classrooms, anaudiovisual classroom, a scientific combustion laboratory,
and a library. In addition, it also contains disaster response
training rooms and other facilities for fostering trainees
with the ability to assess situations and give commands as
leaders by experiencing a variety of simulated disaster
scenarios.
The secondary building contains an auditorium that canaccommodate 300 people, as well as rescue training rooms,
special classrooms, an indoor training ground, and more.
The training facilities consist of an indoor fire defense
training building and an 11-story aboveground, multi-story
training tower where trainees can run drills in anenvironment where there is thick smoke and hot air
through the combined use of steam and smoke machines.
In addition, these also include a training facility wheretrainees can experience a real fire in which theyexperience the same changes in the environment that
occur at the scene of an actual fire in which wood isburning inside a container.
The dormitory has a south wing that can accommodate
172 people and a north wing that can accommodate 52. In
addition, it has been equipped with dedicated facilities for
women, including the bathrooms, restrooms, changing
rooms, and lounges women need for dormitory life.
As for education and training vehicles, the college isequipped with command vehicles, ordinary pump vehicles,
pump vehicles equipped with water tanks, rescue work
vehicles, special disaster response chemical vehicles,
disaster support vehicles, and high-grade emergency
vehicles.
(2) Holding of Education and Training
The Fire and Disaster Management College turned out
1,087 graduates from its comprehensive classes andspecialized classes, and 595 graduates from its practicalcourses in 2016. This brings the total number of its
graduates from the time it was founded up throughFY2016 to 59,183.
What is more, its employees numbered 2,006 people in
FY2017 (Table 2-4-3).

The college's classes were substantially reorganized in
FY2006, following which reviews have been carried out
where appropriate based on the needs of the attendees. As
a result, in FY2016, 20 classes and 11 practical courses
were held throughout the year.
Regarding the contents of the education and training foreach course (lesson subjects), mental health, coping withcritical incident stress, crisis management, public relations,and handling litigation have been incorporated as subjects
designed to cope with the new challenges that have arisen
as a result of changes in social conditions according to theobjectives of each class. What is more, efforts are being
made to round-out the contents of the curriculum, such as
by adding in training that simulates receiving commands
during a fire, simulation training for receiving assistanceduring a large-scale earthquake, and other such drills thatmake use of information systems. Other examples of thisinclude drills on firefighting activities in environmentsthat are similar to those of an actual fir e through theuse of training facilities that simulate the experience ofbeing in an actual fire (hot training).
Moreover, some of the classes incorporate advancelearning over the internet (e-learning) in an effort toprovide efficient education and training within a limited
period of time.

33

In FY2016, a five-day, women-only practical course washeld with the main objective of supporting the careerdevelopment of female firefighting officials in an effort toexpand training opportunities for women.
What is more, this has been established as part of aframework for giving priority to female firefighting
officials by reserving 5% of the enrollment slots for eachclass for women to encourage their matriculation.
Furthermore, for the holding of large-scale international
events (such as the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic
Games), the FDMA has increased the number of days of
education for its NBC Course from 10 to 15 up throughFY2020, when the Olympics are to be held, to contributeto enhancing NBC disaster response capabilities.
At the Committee on the Education and Training at theFire and Disaster Management College held in FY2015, it
was acknowledged that in-service fire academy teachers
must acquire advanced knowledge and expert skillscommensurate with their positions, and that theircapabilities must also be enhanced so as to enable them tocontinue reassessing modalities for how the education andtraining at fire academies should be structured. Based on
this, for FY2017 classes were newly established with theobjective of improving their capabilities to enable them toprovide comprehensive instruction on operational
management planning, and preventative operations or
security operations.
In addition, as a means of expanding training
opportunities for female firefighting officials, the decision
was made to increase enrollment for women-only courses
and the number of days of education, while also enhancing
their contents. It was also decided that the Fire andDisaster Management College Forum that is offered as an
on-demand course would be offered with content basedaround the theme of promoting the active involvement of
women.
In addition, a practical course was established for thosepeople who are involved in preventative operations at fire
departments with the objective being to instill in them theknowledge and skills needed in order to perform
management for inspection operations as a whole.

34(3) Technical Assistance for Fire Academies
The education and training provided at prefectural fire
academies must be enhanced and strengthened owing to
the increasing diversity and growing scale of the situations
resulting from natural disasters, fires, and accidents. The
Fire and Disaster Management College provides thefollowing sorts of technical assistance in order to achieve
this.
A. Education and Training for Fire Academy
Principals and Teachers
Education and training for newly-appointed fire
academy principals and teachers is provided via classes
for newly-appointed fire chiefs and school principals, aswell as classes for newly-appointed teachers, respectively.
What is more, the classes for newly-appointed teachers
and in-service teachers provide education centered mainly
around learning teaching techniques. In addition, they also
incorporate practices in which the teachers actually givelectures, and provide training for educational leaders at thefire academies.
The classes for people other than newly-appointed
teachers and in-service teachers also strive to foster
educational leaders as one of their objectives, and offer
learning on teaching techniques and practice with giving
lectures as part of this.
B. Dispatch of Lecturers
Lecturers on fire suppression duty, prevention,
emergency medical service, rescue, and other forms of fireservice administration and firefighting techniques aredispatched in response to requests from fire academies inorder to enhance the educational content at said academies.
Lecturers were dispatched a total of 113 times in FY2016.
C. Editing Firefighting Textbooks
The FDMA edits the textbooks for beginners that areused at the fire academies. As of April 2017, it had issued
21 types of textbooks.
D. Providing Information on Lecturers, etc.
The FDMA provides a roster of the names of graduatesfrom the Fire and Disaster Management College,
information on lecturers, and more. This is designed tosecure lecturers who have acquired a certain level ofknowledge and skills in specialized areas, as well as tocontribute to further improving the quality of theeducation and training offered by the fire academies.

Table 2-4-3

Education and training implementation status(4) Special Lectures
The FDMA is planning special lectures in anticipation
for the Rugby World Cup 2019 and the 2020 Tokyo
Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held for four years
in the prefectures where the venues for these events arelocated at 16 sites. In FY2017, lectures on topics likesafety management, responding to mass casualties, andNBC responses were held at four locations in Hokkaido
Prefecture, Hyogo Prefecture, Saitama Prefecture, andFukuoka Prefecture.

35

Chapter 2 Fire and Disaster Prevention Organizations and Activities

Section

5 Ambulance Service System

1. Implementation of Emergency
Medical Services(1) Emergency Medical Service Mobilization
The number of times emergency medical service
mobilizations were sent out via ambulances nationwide in2016 came to 6,209,964 (an increase of 155,149, or 2.6%,
from the previous year). This has consistently continued totrend upward since the year 2004, when the number ofcases exceeded 5 million for the first time. The number oftimes emergency medical service mobilizations were sentout taken as a daily average is approximately 16,967 (thiswas 16,589 in the previous year), meaning that emergency
medical service teams were mobilized at a rate of once
every 5.1 seconds or so (this was 5.2 seconds the previousyear). What is more, the number of people transported byambulance has also consistently continued its upward
swing, coming to 5,621,218 people (an increase of
142,848 people, or 2.6%, from the previous year). Thismeans that one out of every 23 members of the public has
been transported by an emergency medical service team(this was one out of every 23 people in the previous year).
Looking at this by the type of accident that led people tobe transported by an ambulance reveals that 3,607,942
people (64.2%) suddenly took ill, 847,871 people (15.1%)
suffered an ordinary injury, 476,689 people (8.5%)
suffered a car accident, and so on (Table 2-5-1, Table
2-5-2, and Attachments 2-5-1 and 2-5-2).

Table 2-5-1(Note)

36

The number of times fire protection helicopters were
mobilized came to 3,664 (this was 3,375 the previousyear), and 2,816 people were transported by them (2,882
the previous year).
(2) People Transported by the Severity of Their
Injury or Illness
Of the 5,621,218 people transported by ambulances in
2016, the majority were people with minor injuries orillnesses that did not require hospitalization (outpatientcare) or other cases (cases where a doctor did not provide
a diagnosis, etc.) (Table 2-5-3).
(3) People Transported by Ambulance by Age
Group and Type of Accident
Viewing a breakdown of the 5,621,218 people transported
by ambulance in 2016 by age group reveals that 13,239 ofthem were newborn infants (0.2%), 270,515 were young
children (4.8%), 202,189 were youths (3.6%), 1,918,454
were adults (34.1%), and 3,216,821 were elderly people(57.2%). As the aging of society advances, the shareaccounted for by elderly people will continue to trend
upwards year by year (this was 56.7% the previous year).
What is more, elderly people accounted for the largest
percentage of the people transported by ambulance forsudden illnesses (2,174,469 people, or 60.3%), while thelargest percentage transported for traffic accidents
consisted of adults (297,051 people, or 62.3%) and thelargest percentage for ordinary injuries consisted ofelderly people (559,037 people, or 65.9%) (Table 2-5-1,
Attachment 2-5-3).

Trends in the number of ambulance services and number of people transported(During each year)

Prepared based on the Annual Report on Ambulance Service and the Survey on the Current Status of Fire and Disaster Prevention and Earthquake
Countermeasures.

Table 2-5-2

Trends in the number of ambulance mobilizations by type of accident and the number ofpeople transported(During each year)(Notes)Table 2-5-3

12

Prepared based on the Annual Report on Ambulance Service
Digits in the second decimal place were rounded off, so in some cases the totals may not be consistent.

Number of people transported by ambulance by type of accident and severity of theirinjury / illness(During 2016)(Notes)1234Prepared based on the Annual Report on Ambulance Service
The severity of injuries or illnesses at the time of the initial medical examination are classified as follows.
(1) Dead: Persons confirmed to be dead at the time of the initial medical examination(2) Severe condition (lengthy hospitalization): Persons whose injury or illness is so severe that they require hospitalization lasting three weeks orlonger(3) Moderate condition (hospitalization): Persons whose injury or illness are neither severe nor mild(4) Mild condition (outpatient care): Persons whose injury or illness does not require hospitalization(5) Other: Persons who have not been diagnosed by a physician, persons for whom the extent of their injury or illness is not clear, or persons who
were transported to another location* Since the extent of injuries or illnesses are categorized by using the amount of hospitalization required as the criteria, mild condition includes
persons who required treatment at a hospital in the early stages and persons who required treatment at a hospital on a regular basis.
The numbers in parentheses show the proportion, and their unit is %.
Digits in the second decimal place were rounded off, so in some cases the totals may not be consistent.

(4) Time Required to Arrive at the Scene
Looking at a breakdown of the 6,209,964 cases in whichambulances were mobilized in 2016 by the time required
to arrive at the scene (time it took to arrive at the scene
after the 119 report was received) reveals that in the
majority of cases it took between five and ten minutes(3,778,131 cases, or 60.8% of the total) (Fig. 2-5-2).
Moreover, the average time required to arrive at thescene came to 8.5 minutes (8.6 minutes, the previous year),which is 1.9 minutes longer than it was ten years ago(2006) (Fig. 2-5-4).
37

Fig. 2-5-1

Trends in the composition rate for people transported by age group

Fig. 2-5-2

No. of mobilizations by time required forthe ambulance to arrive at the scene

Fig. 2-5-4

Trends in the amount of time it takes ambulances to arrive at the scene and the time it takes
to check the patient into a hospital

38

Fig. 2-5-3

No. of people transported by ambulance bytime it took to check them into a hospitalTable 2-5-4(Notes)

1
2
3
4
5
6

First-aid Treatment Administered by Ambulance Crew Members

Prepared based on the Annual Report on Ambulance Service
Since there are cases in which several types of first-aid treatment were administered to one person, the totals for the number of people transported
who received first-aid treatment and the items on first-aid treatment by type of incident do not align.
The numbers in parentheses show the proportion, and their unit is %.
The * symbol indicates first-aid treatment items that were expanded in 1991.
Shows the first-aid treatments administered to sick and injured patients transported by ambulance.
Digits in the second decimal place were rounded off, so in some cases the totals may not be consistent.

(5) Time Required to Check the Patient into a
Hospital
Looking at a breakdown of the 5,621,218 people
transported by ambulance in 2016 by the time required tocheck the patient into a hospital (time required to checkthe patient into a hospital after the 119 report wasreceived) reveals that the majority of people were checkedin between 30 and 60 minutes at 3,473,367 people(61.8%) (Fig. 2-5-3).
In addition, the average time required to check the39

patient into a hospital came to 39.3 minutes (39.4 minutes,
the previous year), which is 7.3 minutes longer than it wasten years ago (2006) (Fig. 2-5-4).
(6) First-aid Treatment Administered by
Ambulance Crew Members
Of the 5,621,218 people transported by ambulances in
2016, ambulance crew members administered first-aid
treatment to 5,373,368 patients (95.6%). This brings thetotal number of cases in which ambulance crew members
administered first-aid treatment to 20,913,601.
What is more, the total number of cases in which
first-aid treatment was administered by ambulance crew
members since their expansion in 1991 (items with *symbol in Table 2-5-4) came to 14,714,256 (a 4.0%
increase year-on-year (YoY)). Of these, the number ofcases in which EMTs administered first-aid treatment inorder to resuscitate a patient (defibrillation*1 (including
cases administered by non-EMT ambulance crews),
ensuring respiratory tracts using laryngeal masks, etc.,*2
tracheal intubation, ensuring intravenous channels,*3 drug
administration,*4 EpiPen use,*5 measuring blood sugar,*6
and administration of grape sugar*7) came to 188,533(161,381 the previous year), which is a roughly 16.8%
increase year on year.

Emergency medical services are offered in 98.3% ofmunicipalities (same as last year), and cover 99.9% of thetotal population (same as last year; the population used isfrom the 2015 national census; the same hereafter), whichmeans that emergency medical services can be received in
virtually every region (Table 2-5-5, Attachment 2-5-4).
When viewed by the configuration through which said
emergency medical services were offered, 442
municipalities offered them independently, 140 did so byoutsourcing them, and 1,108 did so through special districtauthorities and extended associations (Fig. 2-5-5).
Fig. 2-5-5

Breakdown of the configurations bywhich emergency medical services
are offered

2. Implementation Structure for
Emergency Medical Services(1) Number of Municipalities Offering Emergency
Medical Services
The number of municipalities offering emergency
medical services as of April 1, 2017 came to 1,690
municipalities (792 cities, 737 towns, and 161 villages)(the special wards of Tokyo were counted as one city; thesame hereafter).
Table 2-5-5

Trends in the number of municipalities offering emergency medical services(As of April 1 of each year)(Notes) Prepared based on the Annual Report on Ambulance Service(2) Number of Emergency Medical Crews andEmergency Medical Crew Members
As of April 1, 2017, 5,140 emergency medical crews (anincrease of 50 YoY) had been established (Fig. 2-5-6).
Since emergency medical crew members are engaged in
the important duty of saving people’s lives, they mustcomplete at least 135 hours’ worth of training courses on
emergency medical services (the former Emergency
Medical I Course). As of April 1, 2017, the number offirefighters who fulfilled this eligibility requirement came
*1

.

*2
*3
*4
*5
*6
*7

40

to 121,854 (an increase of 277 YoY). Of these, 62,489
were engaged in emergency medical services as
emergency medical crew members (including not only
full-time emergency medical crew members, but also
emergency medical crew members who have been
appointed as such and who concurrently serve on
firefighting vehicles such as pump vehicles by riding
along with them) (Fig. 2-5-7).

Defibrillation: This refers to the application of electrical shock to lethal arrhythmia (ventricular fibrillation) whereby minor tremors in the heart, such as heartspasms, make it impossible for blood to flow, as a means of dispelling said tremors.
Laryngeal mask: This is a type of ventilation tube used to ensure the openness of the respiratory tract. It is fastened in place so as to cover the larynx toensure open breathing channels.。
Ensuring intravenous channels: A process of securing transfusion channels by inserting needles or tubes intravenously. Ensuring intravenous channels
makes it possible to administer medications intravenously right away when they are needed.
Drug administration: This refers to administering epinephrine (also called adrenaline; simply called “epinephrine” hereafter) under the specific instructionsof a doctor.
EpiPen use: In cases where sick or injured patients whose lives are at risk from anaphylactic shock have been prescribed self-injectable epinephrine
formulations (EpiPen) in advance, EMTs will administer said epinephrine via an EpiPen.
Measuring blood sugar: The measurement of blood sugar levels in sick or injured patients with impaired consciousness.
Administration of grape sugar: This refers to the act of administering grape sugar under the specific instructions of a doctor.

Fig. 2-5-6

Trends in the number of emergency medical crews

Fig. 2-5-7

Trends in the number of emergency medical crew members

What is more, of the firefighters who fulfilled theeligibility requirements to be emergency medical crew
members, the number who had completed 250 hours’
worth of emergency medical courses to enable them toprovide even more advanced first-aid treatment (including
the former Emergency Medical Standard Course andformer Emergency Medical II Course) came to 81,960
people (a decrease of 31 YoY) nationwide as of April 1,
2017. Of these, 34,557 are engaged in emergency medical
services as emergency medical crew members.
(3) Trends in the Number of EMTs and Medical
Crews with EMTs
As a result of the increasing sophistication of emergency

services, the FDMA promotes the fostering of EMTs andthe setting in place of structures for making use of them.
The objective is a structure where at least one EMT is
stationed with every emergency medical crew.
The number of fire defense headquarters making use of
EMTs as of April 1, 2017 came to 731 of the total of 732
fire defense headquarters throughout Japan, for a usage
rate of 99.9% (same as the previous year).
The number of emergency medical crews with EMTs
came to 5,082 (an increase of 74 YoY), which corresponds
to 98.9% of the 5,140 emergency medical crews
throughout Japan (98.4% the previous year), with thisrising year by year.
41

What is more, there were 35,775 firefighters with EMT
qualifications (an increase of 1,552 people YoY). Of these,
25,872 had been put to use as EMTs (an increase of 899

people YoY), with this number steadily increasing year by
year (Fig. 2-5-8, Fig. 2-5-9).

Fig. 2-5-8

Trends in the number of medical crews with EMTs

Fig. 2-5-9

Trends in the number of EMTs

(4) Number of Ambulances
The number of ambulances owned by fire defense
headquarters throughout Japan as of April 1, 2017 came to
6,271 (an increase of 61 YoY), including those for
emergency use. Of these, the number of high-standard
ambulances came to 5,977 (an increase of 100 YoY),
which corresponds to 95.3% of the total.
(5) Emergency Medical Services along Nationaland Other Expressways
When it comes to emergency medical services along
national expressways, the Seto-Chuo Expressway, and theKobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway (hereafter referred to as
42“national and other expressways”), the East Nippon
Expressway Company, Central Nippon Expressway
Company, West Nippon Expressway Company, andHonshu-Shikoku Bridge Expressway Company (hereafterreferred to as “expressway companies”) are responsible forroad management operations and offering centralized,
independent emergency medical services. Moreover, themunicipalities along said expressways are responsible forhandling emergency medical services as per the provisionsof the Fire Service Law. So it has been stipulated that bothparties are to work together to properly and efficiently
safeguard human life. As of March 31, 2017, emergency
medical services along national and other expressways

were provided by municipal firefighting agencies overevery section of the 8,782 km of the length of expressway
currently in use. The expressway companies bear a certain
extent of the financial burden that is placed on themunicipalities providing emergency medical services.

3. Promoting Coordination between
Firefighting and Medical Care
(1) Acceptance of People Receiving Emergency
Transport at Medical Institutions
Reports were received on cases in which problems arosein choosing medical institutions to receive patients during
emergency transport in regions all over Japan. Based onthese, in October 2007 the FDMA performed the firstsurvey on the actual state of acceptance for pregnant or
perinatal patients transported from 2004 to 2006.
Moreover, for the survey on the actual acceptance status
regarding emergency transport in 2007, the survey was
carried out not only on pregnant and perinatal patients, butalso focused on patients with severe conditions or worse,young patients, and patients transported to critical carecenters.
For the Survey on the Actual Acceptance Status at
Medical Institutions for Emergency Transport in 2016,
reductions were seen for every category regarding both thenumber and percentage of cases in which four or more
Table 2-5-6(Notes)

1
2
3
4

1
2
3
4

(2) Standards on Patient Transport and Their
AcceptanceIn light of the occurrence of cases in which it is difficult
to select an accepting medical institution during
emergency transport, in 2009 the FDMA worked together
with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to enact
the Standards on Patient Transport and Their Acceptance(hereafter referred to as the “acceptance standards”) for the
prefectures. It also revised the Fire Service Law to include
content mandating the establishment of committees
concerning the acceptance standards (hereafter referred toas “legally-mandated committees”). The revised Fire
Service Law was enacted on October 30, 2009. At present,
committees have been established in every prefecture, andacceptance standards have been formulated as well.

Trends in the number of cases in which four or more acceptance inquiries were made to
medical institutions

Prepared based on the Survey on the Actual Acceptance Status at Medical Institutions for Emergency Transport in 2016
There is some overlap
The percentage is the percentage versus the total number of people transported from each respective category
Digits in the second decimal place were rounded off, so in some cases the totals may not be consistent.

Table 2-5-7(Notes)acceptance inquiries were made compared with the same
survey in 2015 (Table 2-5-6). The number of cases where
the time spent at the scene was 30 minutes or longer rosefor cases in which young patients were transported. Yet
conversely, this fell for cases where patients with severe
conditions or worse and pregnant or perinatal patientswere transported, as well as cases where patients weretransported to critical care centers. The percentages fell forevery category (Table 2-5-7).

Trends in the number of cases where the time spent at the scene was 30 minutes or longer

Prepared based on the Survey on the Actual Acceptance Status at Medical Institutions for Emergency Transport in 2016
There is some overlap
The percentage is the percentage versus the total number of people transported from each respective category
Digits in the second decimal place were rounded off, so in some cases the totals may not be consistent.

The hope is that through the legally-mandated
committees, the prefectures will survey and verify thetransport of patients and their acceptance status based on
the acceptance standards. Then, based on this, it is hopedthat they will tie the results of this in with making

improvements to the acceptance standards and so forth.
For its part, the FDMA works to get a grasp of the status
of initiatives by and challenges for each of the prefectures.
It also makes efforts to follow-up, such as by broadly
getting a grasp of and introducing case examples of43

initiatives by local regions that are striving to operate thiseffectively.
Each prefecture and local region brings together
firefighting agencies and medical organizations (including
hospital departments other than those offering ambulanceservice) and sometimes just medical organizations, as wellas healthcare centers, welfare, police, and other relatedorganizations according to the local circumstances in orderto thoroughly discuss and share their awareness ofproblems through ex-post inspections of transport andacceptance conditions. In addition, through the creation of“relationships with a visible face” on an everyday basis, it
is important that they continue to draft more specific andeffective rules (revisions to acceptance standards, etc.)
geared towards smooth transport and acceptance. Eachgroup is being called upon to make greater efforts
regarding such initiatives. For its part, the FDMA has
resolved to continue carrying out the necessary surveys
and providing information to contribute to improving theapplication of the acceptance standards at the prefecturalcommittees and to discussions over revisions to them.
In light of the revisions to the Fire Service Law and thefact that emergency transport is carried out based upon theacceptance standards, local governmental financial
measures are being taken through special tax grants withrespect to the costs entailed by the assistance rendered to
private secondary emergency medical institutions*8 by
local public bodies in an effort to enhance emergency
medical care structures in local regions.
(3) Emergency Medical Care StructureWith regards to the notification status of emergency
hospitals and emergency clinics, which constitute the*8

44

primary destinations to which patients are taken, as ofApril 1, 2017 there were 4,267 such locations throughout
Japan (White Paper Attached Document 2-5-5).
There are 563 weekend and nighttime emergency carecenters (as of March 31, 2017) that ensure that initial
medical care can be received on weekends and at nights,
which serve as the initial emergency medical carestructure. By way of the secondary medical care structure,
2,896 hospitals on a hospital-group rotating system andjoint-use hospitals have been established (as of March 31,2017), and so have 288 critical care centers (as of August
31, 2017) by way of the tertiary medical care structure.
Moreover, among the critical care centers are advanced
critical care centers capable of handling patients withspecific illnesses or injuries, such as extensive burns,
severed digits and limbs, and acute poisoning, of which 39
locations have been set in place (as of August 31, 2017).
Approval for emergency hospitals and emergency
clinics is provided through emergency reporting structures,
while the installation of initial, secondary, and tertiary
emergency medical care structures is performed in an
integrated manner under the medical care plansestablished by prefectural governors.
Under these emergency medical care structures andthrough the acceptance standards enacted by theprefectures through the provisions of the Fire Service Law,a list of medical institutions that can provide medical careaccording to patients’ conditions has been compiled.
Firefighting agencies use this list when carrying out
emergency transport operations.

Among secondary medical institutions, emergency medical service notice institutions (excluding national and public medical institutions and public
institutions).

Chapter 2 Fire and Disaster Prevention Organizations and Activities

Section6 Rescue Activity System

1. Implementation Status for Rescue
Activities(1) Number of Rescue Activities and Number ofPeople Rescued
The life-saving rescues performed by firefighting
agencies refer to activities whereby human or
machine-power is used to extricate people from dangerous
situations and transport the victims to safe locations.
Examples of such dangerous situations include fires,
traffic accidents, water accidents, natural disasters, andaccidents due to machines.
As for the implementation status for rescue activities
throughout Japan in 2016, 57,148 rescue activities werecarried out (an increase of 1,182, or 2.1% increase, YoY) and
57,955 people were rescued (this refers to the number ofpeople rescued through rescue activities; a decrease of 1,235,
or 2.1% decrease, YoY) (Table 2-6-1, Attachment 2-6-1).
As part of this, the primary reason for the increase in thenumber of rescue activities is due to the increase in thenumber of rescue activities for accidents caused bybuildings (an increase of 1,151, or 5.1%, YoY).
In addition, the primary reason for the drop in thenumber of people rescued is due to the decrease in
accidents from natural disasters like storms and floods (adecrease of 1,940 people, or 67.1%, YoY).
(2) Implementation Status of Rescue Activities byType of Incident
During the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes that occurredin April 2016, enormous damage arose in the form of
human casualties, damage to homes, the destruction ofroads, and more. Given this, local fire departments,
volunteer fire corps, and prefectural firefighting support
teams worked together with Emergency Fire Response
Teams, the police, the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF),
and others to carry out diligent rescue activities.
Looking at the status of rescue activities by type of incident
reveals that the numbers for accidents caused by buildings andtraffic accidents remain high in terms of both the number ofrescue activities and the number of people rescued.
Accidents caused by buildings has been the type ofincident with the greatest number of rescue activities since
Table 2-6-1(Notes)

＊1

.

1
2

2008. In terms of the number of people rescued, starting in2013 it surpassed traffic accidents, which had been thetype of incident with the most people rescued since 1978,
to become the type with the most people rescued.
The number of rescue workers mobilized (which refers
to the total number of people mobilized in order to carryout rescue activities) came to 1,383,457 in total.
Of these, the number of firefighters mobilized came to1,310,368 in total, of which 28.3% were mobilized due totraffic accidents, while 26.9% were mobilized due toaccidents due to buildings. At the same time, the number ofvolunteer fire corps members mobilized came to 73,089 intotal, of which 70.7% were mobilized on account of fires.
Next, the number of people who engaged in rescue
activities (this refers to the number of people who actuallyengaged in rescue activities out of the number mobilized)
came to 564,641 in total. This means that 9.9 people on
average took part in each individual rescue activity. Whatis more, in terms of the number of people engaged in eachindividual rescue activity by type of incident, fires had thegreatest number at 16.9 people on average, followed bywater-related accidents at 14.5 people (Fig. 2-6-1, Fig.
2-6-2, Table 2-6-2).

2. Implementation Structure for Rescue
Activities(1) Number of Rescue Crews and Number ofRescue Crew Members
Rescue crews are established in municipalities that havefire defense headquarters and fire stations pursuant to the
Ministerial Ordinance Establishing Standards for theOrganization, Outfitting, and Establishment of Rescue
Crews (Ministerial Ordinance No. 22 of the Ministry ofHome Affairs from 1986; hereafter referred to as the“Rescue Ordinance”). They consist of members who havereceived specialized education related to lifesaving (140hours’ worth), as well as rescue and relief supplies and therescue vehicles equipped with these needed for rescue
activities. They are categorized into four classifications:rescue crews, special rescue crews, advanced rescue crews,
and special advanced rescue crews.*1

Trends in the number of rescue activities and number of people rescued

Prepared based on the Survey on the Implementation Status of Rescue Activities
This includes the number of activities by volunteer fire corps in municipalities where fire defense headquarters/fire departments have not been
established. The same holds true for the following data in this section.

The Rescue Ordinance stipulates that municipalities with a population of 100,000 people or more and a standing fire defense structure must establish a
special rescue crew. Core cities and the like must have one or more special rescue crews that serve as advanced rescue crews, and the Tokyo Fire
Department and ordinance-designated cities must have one or more advanced fire crews that serve as special advanced rescue crews.。

45

Fig.2-6-1

Number of rescue activities by type ofincident

Table 2-6-2

Fig.2-6-2

Number of people rescued by type ofincident

Number of mobilizations and status of activities by type of incident(During 2016)）(Notes)

1
2
3
4
5
6

Prepared based on the Survey on the Implementation Status of Rescue Activities
The numbers in parenthesis show the proportion (%). Less than whole units were rounded up, so in some cases the totals may not be consistent.
“No. of rescue workers mobilized” refers to the total number of people mobilized in order to carry out rescue activities.
“No. of people who engaged in rescue activities” refers to the number of people who actually engaged in rescue activities out of the number
mobilized.
“Accidents due to buildings” refer to accidents caused by the collapse of buildings, gates, fences, walls, and other facilities ancillary to buildings orequivalent structures; accidents in which people were trapped within buildings; and accidents from people being caught between buildings.
“Other” refers to accidents other than the types listed above that necessitated rescue by firefighting agencies.

As of April 2017, 1,420 crews had been establishedwithin 715 fire defense headquarters, and the number ofrescue crew members came to 24,449 people.
This means that on average, roughly 2.0 rescue crews
have been established at each fire defense headquarters,with an average of 17.3 rescue crew members stationed oneach crew. The number of fire defense headquarters andrescue crews have been dropping as they spread out tocover broader areas, but the number of rescue crews per
fire defense headquarters and the number of crew
members per rescue crew have been trending upward.

46(2) Ownership Status of Rescue Equipment for
Rescue Activities
Rescue equipment for rescue activities includes
equipment for removing heavy objects such as hydraulicspreaders, cutting equipment like hydraulic cutters,
detection and measurement equipment such as
inflammable gas measuring instruments, and more.
Advanced, specialized equipment has been deemednecessary for them to guard against the large-scale
earthquake disasters and terrorist disasters that could
potentially occur. As such, the FDMA makes efforts topromote the establishment and maintenance of rescue
work vehicles and rescue equipment by taking advantage
of grants for equipping Emergency Fire Response Teams,
as well as tax measures allocated to local governments andmore (Table 2-6-3).

Table 2-6-3

Ownership status of rescue equipment for rescue activities and board vehicles forcarrying rescue crews(As of April 1, 2017)

3. Holding National Firefighting and
Rescue Skills Meets
The National Firefighting and Rescue Skills Meet has
been held every year since 1972 (sponsored by the Japan
Firefighters Association, with the backing of the FDMA
and others). Its goal is to foster the physical strength,
mental toughness, and technical capabilities needed for
rescue activities, as well as to gather rescue crew members
from throughout Japan together to cultivate crew members
who can serve as examples to others through competitionand learning.
The National Firefighting and Rescue Skills Meet isdivided up into a land division and a water division. For

each division, a number of types of training are carried out.
There is basic training where individual crew members
practice basic skills, coordinated training where crew
members practice their individual skills together withcooperation with other crew members, as well as skills
training where participating crew members demonstrate
everything from training assumptions to rescue methods
using creativity and ingenuity without stipulations as tothe equipment or training skills that will be used.
The 46th meet was held on August 23, 2017 in Rifu
Town, Miyagi Prefecture. Here, 704 crew members took
part in the land division and 230 took part in the water
division. The 47th meet will be held in the city of Kyoto.

47

Chapter 2 Fire and Disaster Prevention Organizations and Activities

Section8 Wide-area Joint Firefighting Support and Emergency Fire Response Teams

1. Wide-area Joint Support for
Firefighting -Omitted2. Emergency Fire Response Teams(1) Creation of the Emergency Fire Response
Teams and Their Enshrinement in Law via
Revisions to the Fire Organization Act
A. Creation of the Emergency Fire Response
Teams
The Emergency Fire Response Teams were created inJune 1995 through the cooperation of fire defense
headquarters from throughout Japan in order to create an
assistance structure through the mutual cooperation of
firefighting agencies from around the country. This was
based on the lessons from the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Table 2-8-1

Earthquake from January 17, 1995, and designed to makeit possible to carry out lifesaving rescue activities whenlarge-scale disasters such as earthquakes occur within
Japan in a faster, more effective manner.
The system is structured so that during times ofnormalcy, the Emergency Fire Response Teams focus allof their energies on carrying out firefighting duties in theirrespective local regions. But once a large-scale disasteroccurs somewhere in Japan, firefighting teams mobilize ina concentrated manner to the afflicted region fromthroughout the country to respond to said disaster at therequest or instructions of the Commissioner of the FDMA.
There they engage in firefighting activities, including
lifesaving and rescue activities.

Actual track record regarding mobilizations of wide-area aerial medical support teams
based on the Implementation Guidelines for Wide-area Aerial Firefighting Support Teams
during Large-scale and Special Disasters (past 20 years)(As of November 1, 2017; Unit: Record)

When they were first launched, the Emergency Fire
Response Teams consisted of 376 teams registered with
the FDMA to provide domestic assistance for firefighting.
They were comprised of rescue crews, emergency medicalcrews, and more (these numbered roughly 4,000 people if
you include standby and replacement members). There
were also 891 out-of-prefecture assistance teams thatengaged in activities between neighboring prefectures,
which consisted of firefighting teams and others (thesenumbered roughly 13,000 people if you include standby
48

and replacement members). This brought the total to 1,267
teams (with roughly 17,000 people if you include standby
and replacement members). In January 2011, a registration
system for fire teams was introduced in order to enhance
the mobilization structure for the Emergency Fire
Response Teams and response capabilities for various
disasters.
What is more, a number of new types of teams were
established in order to handle increasingly complicatedand diverse disasters. These included special disasterteams with the capacity to respond to special disasters
such as oil and chemical disasters, as well as those
involving toxic or hazardous substances, or radioactive
materials, as well as air teams that use fire protection
helicopters and water teams that use firefighting boats.
This brought the types of teams to eight, and the numberof teams to 1,785 (with roughly 26,000 people if you
include standby and replacement members).
B. Enshrinement in Law through the 2003
Revisions to the Fire Organization Act
It has been pointed out that potential earthquakes like a
Tokai Earthquake, Tonankai/Nankai Earthquake, or anearthquake directly below the Tokyo Metropolitan Region
are imminent, as have the dangers of NBC terrorism
disasters. As such, scenarios can be envisioned where it
would be difficult to respond to such disasters promptly
and precisely solely through the firefighting capabilities ofthe municipalities in the afflicted region or those found in
the afflicted prefecture. Therefore, the Commissioner of
the FDMA has been vested with the necessary authority towork to enhance and strengthen emergency response
structures from a national perspective. In conjunction with
this, the Act for the Partial Revision of the Fire
Organization Act was drafted in 2003 and entered into
force in 2004. This act includes content that includes
prescribing financial measures for the national
government.
(a) Main content of the revised law
The main content of the revised law consists of staking
out a clear legal position for the Emergency Fire Response
Teams, establishing the authority of the Commissioner of
the FDMA to order mobilizations, formulating basic plans
relating to the Emergency Fire Response Teams, and thefinancial measures of the national government.
(b) Legal position and mobilization orders by theCommissioner of the FDMA
The Emergency Fire Response Teams, which have been
put to use based on certain guiding principles since they
were established, were given a clear legal position within
the Fire Organization Act through the revisions to this law.
In addition, in the event that a Tokai Earthquake or otherlarge-scale disaster extends over two or more prefectures
or an NBC disaster were to occur, the Commissioner of
the FDMA shall be able to issue the orders to take thenecessary measures to mobilize the Emergency Fire
Response Teams. This authority to order mobilizations
was established based on the thinking that the national
government bears responsibility for deploying firefighting
capabilities to afflicted regions in the form of ordering themobilization of the Emergency Fire Response Teams forlarge-scale disasters that should be handled from a truly
nationwide perspective. The unprecedented, enormous
disaster of the Great East Japan Earthquake was the firsttime this authority was exercised since it was established.
(c) Enactment of the Basic Plan pertaining to theEmergency Fire Response Teams
It has been legally mandated that the Minister forInternal Affairs and Communications is to enact the Plan
on Basic Items concerning the Organization and Outfittingof Facilities for the Emergency Fire Response Teams(hereafter referred to as the “Basic Plan”).
This Basic Plan was enacted in February 2004, andestablished matters such as standards for equipping andorganizing the crews that comprise the Emergency Fire

Response Teams, mobilization plans, and targets forsetting in place the necessary facilities. When it was
initially enacted, it set the target of registering 3,000
Emergency Fire Response Teams by FY2008.
(d) Financial measures by the national government for theEmergency Fire Response Teams
The mobilization of the Emergency Fire Response
Teams has been legally mandated in cases where they
have been ordered to mobilize by the Commissioner of the
FDMA. Therefore, the expenses that are newly required asa result of said mobilizations are to be borne by thenational government as treasury expenses as per Article 10of the Local Government Finance Act.
What is more, the establishment of facilities pursuant to
the Basic Plan were clarified in a legal sense as
constituting “expenses to be subsidized by the national
government.” In addition, the eligible facilities and thesubsidy rate (one-half) have been established throughgovernment ordinance (Table 2-8-2).
(e) Use of equipment for Emergency Fire Response Teams
free of charge
With regard to those pieces of equipment from among
the equipment needed for the organization of theEmergency Fire Response Teams that it would be
inefficient for local public bodies to outfit and own from acost-effectiveness perspective, it is hard to imagine that
progress will be made in outfitting this even if government
subsidies are provided for it. There is some equipment thatneeds to be provided quickly in order to fulfill the national
government’s responsibilities when it comes to large-scaleand specialized disasters. As such, it was stipulated that
this equipment is to be set in place by the national
government, but provided for use free of charge to theprefectures or municipalities to which the personnel who
are active as Emergency Fire Response Team members
belong.
C. Enhancing mobility through the 2008 revisions
to the Fire Organization Act
In 2008 the Act for the Partial Revision of the Fire
Organization Act was drafted and entered into force. This
included content such as enhancing the mobility of theEmergency Fire Response Teams in an effort to further
strengthen fire and disaster defense structures forlarge-scale earthquakes such as a Tokai Earthquake,
Tonankai/Nankai Earthquake, or an earthquake directly
below the Tokyo Metropolitan Region.
(a) Main content of the revised law
The main content of the revised law consists ofestablishing the authority for prefectural governors toorder the mobilization of Emergency Fire Response Teams
that are already active in municipalities where disasters
have occurred, the establishment of coordination
headquarters for firefighting support activities, andrevisions to the requirements for the orders to mobilize theEmergency Fire Response Teams by the Commissioner of
the FDMA (Fig. 2-8-1).
(b) Establishment of the authority for prefectural
governors to order mobilizations
This stipulated that prefectural governors can order themobilization of Emergency Fire Response Teams active inmunicipalities where they normally operate. This can bedone in cases where a disaster has occurred in two or more
municipalities within a prefecture, and where it is deemednecessary for the sake of urgently providing firefighting
49

support for municipalities where a disaster has occurredthat lie outside of the municipalities in which said
Emergency Fire Response Teams normally operate. This
structure was set in place based on the fact that teams
spanning across municipal borders within the same
prefecture were mobilized for the 2004 heavy rainfall
disasters in Niigata and Fukushima, as well as the Mid
Niigata Prefecture Earthquake in 2004. In cases spanning
across prefectural borders, it has been stipulated that theCommissioner of the FDMA shall coordinate this, since
said coordination will span across two or more prefectures(Fig. 2-8-2).
(c) Establishment of coordination headquarters for
firefighting support activities
To ensure that the prefectural governor’s orders from (b)are carried out smoothly, the prefectural governors are to
Table 2-8-2

Fig.2-8-1

50

establish coordination headquarters for firefighting
support activities (hereafter referred to as “coordination
headquarters”) in order to carry out the generalcoordination for measures like lending support for
firefighting when the Emergency Fire Response Teams aremobilized for this purpose. The coordination headquarters
are tasked with handling tasks related to coordinating with
the Japan Self-Defense Forces, police, and other relevantorganizations. This is done in an effort to ensure that tasks
related to general coordination over measures designed tosupport the firefighting activities carried out by theprefecture and municipalities within the prefecture inquestion are carried out smoothly (Fig. 2-8-3).

Enshrining the Emergency Fire Response Teams into law through the 2003 revisions to theFire Organization Act

Overview of the 2008 revision to the Fire Organization Act

Fig.2-8-2

Authority of prefectural governors to order mobilizations

Fig 2-8-3

Organization of coordination headquarters
for firefighting support activities(d) Revisions to the requirements for the Commissioner of
the FDMA to order the mobilization of the Emergency
Fire Response Teams
The dangers of earthquakes causing enormous damage
in a localized manner as a result of active faults have been
pointed out. It was stipulated that the Commissioner of the
FDMA can order the governors of prefectures aside fromthe prefecture where the municipality in which the disasteroccurred is located or the mayors of municipalities within
the prefecture in question to take the necessary measures
to mobilize their Emergency Fire Response Teams. Where
this was previously limited to cases where the disaster was
regarded as a large-scale disaster spanning two or more
prefectures, now it can be done when it has been
acknowledged that there is a special need to respond to thedisaster in question, even when it is a large-scale disasterthat has occurred solely within a single prefecture.

(2) Organization of and Mobilization Plans for
Emergency Fire Response Teams
Issues like the organization of and mobilization plans
for the Emergency Fire Response Teams are establishedwithin the Basic Plan set by the Minister of Internal
Affairs and Communications. An overview of these issues
is provided below.
A. Organization of the Emergency Fire Response
Teams(A) Command Support GroupThe Command Support Group is tasked with the duty ofurgently heading to afflicted regions via helicopter or the
like when large-scale disasters or special disasters occur togather information related to the disaster and convey thisto the Commissioner of the FDMA, the governors of therelevant prefectures, and others. In addition, it has also
been tasked with the duty of carrying out support activities
to ensure that commands pertaining to the Emergency Fire
Response Teams are carried out smoothly within the
afflicted region.
(B) Municipal Teams
Municipal Teams are comprised of the teams required toaid with firefighting undertaken in afflicted regions fromamong a number of different teams. These include theMunicipal Team Commanding Team, firefighting teams,
rescue teams, emergency services teams, logistical support
teams, communication support teams, air teams, waterteams, special disaster teams, and special equipment teams
established within the prefecture in question ormunicipalities within said prefecture (including the special
district authorities and extended associations for
firefighting in the special wards of Tokyo or
municipalities; the same hereafter). Table 2-8-4(c) Joint Task ForceThe Joint Task Force is tasked with the duty of promptly
dispatching advance mobilizations upon the orders of thehead of the Municipal Team Commanding Team after alarge-scale disaster or special disaster occurs. It is also51

tasked with collecting and providing information
conducive to ensuring smooth activities on the part of theMunicipal Teams that follow, as well as carrying out
urgent firefighting activities in the afflicted regions.
(d) Emergency Response Unit for Disasters with Energy
and Industrial Infrastructure (Dragon Hyper Command
Unit)
The Emergency Response Unit for Disasters with
Energy and Industrial Infrastructure is tasked with the dutyof undertaking sophisticated and specialized firefighting
activities promptly and in the correct manner in responseto special disasters in regions containing petrochemicalcomplexes, chemical plants, and other energy andindustrial infrastructure.
B. Mobilization Plans(A) Basic Mobilization Plans
When large-scale disasters occur, the Commissioner of
the FDMA makes efforts to gather information and closely
coordinate with the prefectural governor of the afflicted
prefecture and other officials. They also decide on whether
or not it is necessary to mobilize the Emergency Fire
Response Teams, and take the measures to request or ordertheir mobilization based on Article 44 of the Fire
Organization Act. Mobilization plans are to be establishedahead of time to enable their prompt and precise
mobilization in such cases.
Specifically, for each prefecture in which a disasteroccurs, they designate prefectural squads that mobilize toprovide support with a primary focus on neighboringFig 2-8-4

52

prefectures as “first response prefectural squads” andprefectural squads that provide additional support
according to the scale of the disaster as “reserve response
prefectural squads.”(B) Rapid Mobilization Standards for when Large-scale
Earthquakes Occur
When large-scale earthquakes occur, communications
infrastructure is disrupted and a considerable length oftime is needed in order to determine the overall extent of
the damage. In light of this, Emergency Fire Response
Teams must be ready to be quickly mobilized to theafflicted region so that they can effectively save lives
through firefighting, rescue, first-aid, and other suchactivities.
For this reason, the Commissioner of the FDMA has
prefectural governors and municipal mayors from aroundthe country prepare Requests for the Mobilization of
Emergency Fire Response Teams Pursuant to Article 44 of
the Fire Organization Act in advance. The Implementation
Guidelines on Rapid Mobilizations of the Emergency Fire
Response Teams for Large-scale Earthquakes wereenacted in July 2008, which contained content on matterslike mobilizing them the instant a large-scale earthquake
occurs.
Then, in March 2015, these implementation guidelines
were prescribed in the Guidelines on Requests for
Assistance from Emergency Fire Response Teams.

Organization of teams comprising the Emergency Fire Response Teams

(C) Mobilization Plans for a Tokai Earthquake and Other
Potential Earthquakes
It is envisioned that a Tokai Earthquake,
Tonankai/Nankai Earthquake, Nankai Trough Earthquake,or earthquake directly below the Tokyo Metropolitan
Region would produce considerable damage that would
extend over multiple prefectures. The thinking is that the
firefighting capabilities of just the first response
prefectural squads and reserve response prefectural squads
alone would be insufficient for this. Therefore, it has been
decided that Emergency Fire Response Teams would be
mobilized at a national scale for these.
Therefore, the FDMA has formulated guidelines andaction plans for using the Emergency Fire Response
Teams for each of these disasters should they occur. Thiswas done by envisioning a Tokai Earthquake,
Tonankai/Nankai Earthquake, Nankai Trough Earthquake,and earthquake directly below the Tokyo Metropolitan
Region, and is based on the response guidelines, estimatesof the damage from such disasters, and other data from theCentral Disaster Prevention Council.
For example, there is an Emergency Fire Response
Team action plan for a Nankai Trough Earthquake thatwas formulated in March 2016. This plan determines sites
to receive assistance in 37 other prefectures aside from theFig 2-8-8

ten prefectures designated to receive priority assistance, towhich every Emergency Fire Response Team capable ofproviding assistance would be simultaneously andpromptly deployed (Fig. 2-8-5). What is more, the action
plan for an earthquake directly below the Tokyo
Metropolitan Region that was enacted in March 2017
decides on assistance providers from the 43 prefectures(excluding four prefectures designated as the prefectures
receiving support), and states that every Emergency Fire
Response Teams that can provide support is to promptly
devote personnel to this all at once.
For an earthquake along the Nankai Trough, the reportby the Working Group to Review Disaster Responses
based on Seismic Observations and Evaluations for a
Nankai Trough Earthquake from September 2017indicated the course for a disaster response in the eventthat abnormal phenomena were observed along the Nankai
Trough. Therefore, in the future the policy for deploying
Emergency Fire Response Teams and the action plan areslated to be revised as needed based on the new disaster
responses of the national government, regional publicorganizations, and others.

Basic mobilization and action plans for the Emergency Fire Response Teams (as ofDecember 2017)53

(D) Assistance Plans by the Prefectures
Each prefecture formulates its own Implementation
Plans for Assistance from Emergency Fire Response
Teams based on the registration status of Emergency Fire
Response Teams within the prefecture in question. These
plans are based on consultations with the firefighting
agencies of each prefecture in question with regard to theorganization of prefectural squads and other teams,
meeting locations, information communication structures,and other necessary items concerning the prompt
mobilization of Emergency Fire Response Teams toafflicted regions.
What is more, the fire defense headquarters must
likewise formulate assistance plans while striving forconsistency with the contents of the assistance plans
formulated by the prefectures for the sake of promptly
mobilizing the Emergency Fire Response Teams toafflicted regions.
C. Requests for AssistanceBased on the lessons from the disasters that occurred in2014, in March 2015 the Guidelines on the Use of theEmergency Fire Response Teams were revised, and thefollowing content was prescribed through the Guidelines
on Requests for Assistance from Emergency Fire
Response Teams and the Guidelines on the Use of theEmergency Fire Response Teams.
(a) Requests for immediate assistanceThe guidelines stated that in the event that a large-scaledisaster occurs, prefectural governors are to request
assistance when the damage is expected to expand to aconsiderable degree and they deem the assistance of theEmergency Fire Response Teams to be necessary. This is
to be done even in situations where the extent of thedamage cannot be immediately determined in detail so as
to ensure that requests for immediate assistance can be
made.
What is more, it had been common practice from before
for requests for assistance from the prefectural governors
to be made in writing based on the official forms. But theguidelines now state that the need for assistance can beconveyed over the phone. What is more, when prefectural
governors request the dispatch of the Japan Self-Defense
Forces (JSDF) in response to disasters, they are toconsider the need for assistance from the Emergency Fire
Response Teams at the same time.
(b) Coordination with relevant organizations
The guidelines stipulate that coordination headquarters
for firefighting support activities are to be set up inlocations where they can closely coordinate with not only
prefectural disaster response headquarters, but also thegovernment’s local response headquarters and relevantorganizations. This is designed to strengthen coordination
with the relevant organizations (JSDF, police, Japan Coast
Guard, DMAT, etc.) at the prefectural level.
Moreover, at the municipal level the command support
headquarters is to be set up at a location that would allow
for close coordination with the municipal disaster response
headquarters and the command headquarters (establishedwithin the fire defense headquarters of the afflicted region).
The guidelines also stipulated that the team members areto be dispatched to the municipal disaster response
headquarters or the command headquarters based on the
judgment of the head of the command support
headquarters as needed. Both of these measures are54

designed to enhance coordination with the relevantorganizations.
D. Plans for Receiving Assistance
Each prefecture formulates Plans for Receiving
Assistance from the Emergency Fire Response Teams by
hypothesizing situations in which said prefecture itself
falls victim to a disaster. This is done throughconsultations with the firefighting agencies within theprefecture over necessary matters regarding theacceptance of the Emergency Fire Response Teams.
Examples of these include how to operate the coordination
headquarters and air support coordination teams in times
of normalcy, as well as points of ingress, billeting
locations, and refueling bases. It is envisioned that a large
number of aircraft from organizations such as firefighting
agencies, the police, the Japan Coast Guard, the JSDF, andhelicopter ambulances will amass in order to provide
assistance to the afflicted region, particularly whenlarge-scale disasters occur. As such, the guidelines statethat air support coordination teams are to be establishedwithin the prefectural disaster response headquarters in aneffort to provide safe and smooth air support coordination.
What is more, the fire defense headquarters must
likewise formulate plans for receiving assistance while
striving for consistency with the contents of the plans forreceiving assistance formulated by the prefectures and theprefecture’s regional firefighting plans for the sake ofreceiving the Emergency Fire Response Teams in theirregion.
(3) Number of Emergency Fire Response Teams
Registered and Their Equipmenta. Number of teams registered
The stipulations of Paragraph 4, Article 45 of the Fire
Organization Act states that the Commissioner of the
FDMA must register the Emergency Fire Response Teams
based on applications to do so from the prefectural
governors or municipal mayors.
Since the launch of the 1,267 Emergency Fire Response
Teams in September 1995, there has been a growing
recognition of the importance of their activities during
disasters. As a result, the number of teams registered has
been on the rise, and as of April 1, 2017, 5,658 teams havebeen registered from 727 fire defense headquarters
nationwide (roughly 99% of the fire defense headquarters
nationwide). This is an increase of 357 teams over andabove the number registered in April 1, 2016 (of 5,301
teams).
In March 2014, the basic plan was revised and a target
for the number of teams registered was set for the end of
FY2018 that would substantially increase the number ofteams from its current level of roughly about 4,500 toroughly 6,000 teams. This is to be done because it is
crucial to set in place a structure for deploying teams
quickly and at a large scale in preparation for large-scaledisasters such as a Nankai Trough Earthquake or anearthquake directly below the Tokyo Metropolitan Region,
for which damage that is worse than that from the Great
East Japan Earthquake is envisioned.
B. Equipment
Since they were first launched, the FDMA has
formulated standards for the equipment for the Emergency
Fire Response Teams. Moreover, since their enshrinement
into law in 2003, it has included provisions for this in its

basic plan as it has worked to round-out their line-up ofequipment. Starting from 2006, government subsidy
measures have been taken through a subsidy for outfitting
the Emergency Fire Response Teams with facilities andequipment. Through this, progress has been made inequipping them with special disaster-response fire pumpvehicles, rescue work vehicles, special disaster-response
ambulances, as well as the support vehicles active teams
need to act in a self-contained manner in afflicted regions,and also fiberscopes and other sophisticated rescue
equipment and supplies.
What is more, the stipulations in Article 50 of the Fire
Organization Act provide for a system for using equipment
free of charge. Under this system, some of the equipment
needed by the Emergency Fire Response Teams for theirteam activities and logistical activities is allocated to fire
defense headquarters and other sites throughout Japan.
Such equipment includes systems for water sources for
firefighting capable of handling disasters at energy andindustrial infrastructure, response vehicles for handlingtsunamis and large-scale storm and flood damage, vehicles
that can function as mobile bases, and more (Table
2-8-3).

Table 2-8-3

Main allocation of vehicles and otherequipment via the system for using
equipment free of charge stipulated in
Article 50 of the Fire Organization Act(Notes) * indicates equipment scheduled to be allocated in FY2017

55

Moreover, the emergency and disaster prevention andreduction business debentures (100% allocations, 70% tax
grant rate) that were established in FY2011 were expanded
in FY2013 to newly encompass “Equipment for vehicles
for the functional enhancement of the Emergency Fire
Response Teams” and “Facilities to serve as bases forwide-area activities for the Emergency Fire Response
Teams.”In FY2014, base facilities for rescue activities and thelike were added to the list of facilities eligible for aid via
subsidies for the costs of outfitting fire and disasterprevention equipment. Such facilities consist of helicopter
landing pads, facilities for storing equipment and supplies,56

and private refueling facilities. Through this, progress has
been made with setting in place base facilities that willallow Emergency Fire Response Teams to carry out rescue
and other activities in a self-reliant manner.
The FDMA will continue working to round-out andenhance the equipment of the Emergency Fire Response
Teams in a systematic manner to ensure that they caneffectively carry out their activities.

Attachment 1-1-2

Extent of fire damage by prefecture(During 2016)(Note)The “21 city total” is found within the prefectural totall.

57

Attachment 1-1-2

Extent of fire damage by prefecture (continued)(During 2016)(Note)

58

The “21 city total” is found within the prefectural total.

Attachment 1-1-2

Extent of fire damage by prefecture (continued)(During 2016) (Unit: 1,000 yen)

(Note)The “21 city total” is found within the prefectural total.

59

Attachment 1-2-1

Trends in the number of facilities for hazardous material(As of March 31 of each year)(Notes)60123Prepared based on the Survey on Regulation Work of Hazardous Materials.
1959 is as of September 30.
With regard to the numbers in 2011 and 2012, because of the influence of the Great East Japan Earthquake, the numbers for the Fire Defense
Headquarters of Rikuzentakata City of Iwate Prefecture and the Fire Defense Headquarters of the Inter-municipal Association of the Futaba
Region in Fukushima Prefecture were calculated based on the numbers at the time of last fiscal year’s survey (as of March 31, 2010).

Attachment 2-1-2

Trends in the number of firefighting agencies and volunteer firefighter(As of April 1 of each year)(Notes)

Prepared based on the Survey of the Current Status of Fire Prevention and Earthquake Countermeasures and the Report on Personnel Changes
concerning Fire Defense Headquarters and Volunteer Fire Corps.

61