Silviase/jgov_v1.4_full_ann huggingface dataset:
## 2 -2 Dissemination and reinforcement of traffic safety messages

## Traffic safety education for the elderly

The nation also recognized the need to increase traffic safety awareness of seniors themselves, through mutual edification programs involving seniors. Toward this end, the country supported the establishment of traffic safety clubs within senior’s clubs and retirement homes and encouraged the training of “Silver Leaders,” seniors who provide education on traffic safety to other seniors. It also encouraged seniors’ clubs to take leadership roles on traffic safety within their communities and households, and provided support for such efforts. In conjunction with related organizations, seniors’ clubs responded by preparing “Hiyari Maps” (maps of near-miss spots) and by proposing and organizing seminars on the safe use of electric wheelchairs (wheelchairs powered by motors that meet standards set by the Enforcement Regulations of the Road Traffic Law), whose use has begun spreading rapidly in recent days.

The Cabinet Office carried out two programs in the area of traffic safety education for the elderly. One, called the “Citizen-involved Project to Promote Traffic Safety Education for Seniors,” aimed to train leaders who would continue to promote programs of traffic safety education based on participation, hands-on experience, and actual practice. The other, called the “Central Training Program for Silver Leaders,” sought to improve Silver Leaders’ ability to educate sub-leaders. The Cabinet Office also continued its efforts in the “Traffic Safety Awareness Program for Seniors,” which encompasses the “Cross-generation Sharing Project,” in which people from three generations gather to learn about traffic safety, and the “Seniors Home Visit Project,” in which traffic safety guidance is provided at home to seniors unable to attend traffic safety seminars.
## Focus

## Reflective Material and Traffic Safety

In 2005, fatalities from traffic accidents declined for the fifth consecutive year, and they fell below 7,000 for the first time in 49 years (since 1956). Fatalities among pedestrians remained high, however, reaching 2,104 and accounting for more than 30% of all traffic-related deaths. Of these, approximately 70% occurred while people were walking at night. Moreover, the fatality rate of casualties at night was around 3.8 times that of casualties during the day.

Given this situation, achieving the government’s goal of “reducing traffic fatalities to less than 5,000 within a 10-year period” will depend significantly on being able to reduce the number of pedestrian deaths at night.

On the other hand, although reflective material is widely recognized as an effective means of preventing traffic accidents at night, the number of people who own or use such material is low. Taking this situation into account, the national government has been endeavoring to prevent nighttime accidents by stepping up its calls to pedestrians to use reflective material as a means of improving their visibility to drivers.

In this section, we detail the activities engaged in by the National Police Agency and the prefectural police departments to improve traffic safety, primarily their coordinated campaign to encourage the use of reflective material during FY2005.

Pedestrian fatalities during the day and at night during 2005

Note: Source: National Police Agency

## Survey results on awareness, ownership, and use of reflective material by pedestrians

Cabinet Office: Special Survey on Traffic Safety (December 2004)
## 1 Reflective devices and visibility

Reflective material employs a property called retroflection, in which the material is optically designed to reflect light back in the direction of the light source, no matter what its direction. Light from a car’s headlights, when shined on a reflective material, will be returned in the direction of the car, which is the source of the light. When this happens, the reflective material will appear very bright to the driver, who will thus recognize the presence of a pedestrian from a long distance away.

## 2 Campaigns by the National Police Agency

In conjunction with awareness-raising activity by prefectural police departments, the National Police Agency took steps to expand the campaign to promote reflective material to a national audience. To publicize its efforts, the agency produced an educational video and established a home page on reflective material, which it maintained between September 2005 and January 2006.

(1) Number of persons accessing home page:

- Number of persons accessing home page: approximately 67,000 (an average of 438 persons/day)

• Number of persons viewing National Police Agency video (“Reflective Material: the Lifesaving Light”): approximately 5,400 persons

(2) Survey results on effects of using reflective material

Through its home page, the National Police Agency assembled a group of persons to act as monitors and on three separate occasions asked them to respond to surveys regarding the effects of wearing reflective material during their walks.

## Number of registered monitors: approximately 5,500 persons (male, 63%; female, 37%)

{1} Persons who wore reflective material each time he or she left the house at night ...increased from 23% to 35%

{2} Persons who felt a resistance to using reflective material

...decreased from 20% to 5%
{3} Persons who directly sensed the impact of using reflective material, including feeling that “approaching cars slowed down upon seeing them” ...39%

{4} Drivers who confirmed an increase in visibility when pedestrians wore reflective material: ...99%

{5} Persons who will continue to wear reflective material hereafter

{6} The principal reflective materials used by monitors

Principal types of reflective material used

Results of survey

## 3 Principal public-information and awareness-raising activities by prefectural police (1) Prefectural citizens campaigns

Using easily identifiable names such as the Safe Night Initiative, the Aurora Initiative and the “Ashi Pika” (flashing feet) Movement, prefectural police engaged in a variety of activities aimed at generating momentum for wider use of reflective material among prefectural residents. They distributed reflective material on street corners, on visits to seniors’ homes, and at lectures and other educational events. They also placed them directly on to shoes etc., used by people in their everyday lives at these events.

(2) Street campaigns, with participation by governors and local administrative heads The police mobilized large numbers of volunteers from local governments and related agencies and organizations to distribute leaflets and other information at major intersections and at shopping and entertainment districts. At these events, participants wearing reflective garments encouraged passersby to use reflective material.

(3) Convening of nighttime educational programs

These were nighttime programs oriented toward participation, hands-on experience, and actual practice which sought to increase the public’s understanding of the benefits of wearing reflective material, ways of wearing the material, etc. The police used cars at driver training facilities, schools and other locations to demonstrate a number of phenomena, including: 1) differences in visibility depending on the color of clothing
worn and whether a pedestrian was or was not wearing reflective material; 2) the areas that are visible to drivers within their headlights beams; 3) the glare phenomenon caused by light from an approaching vehicle which causes objects to disappear.

## (4) Fashion shows highlighting reflective material

The items put on display at these shows included shoes with built-in reflective material, and clothing and accessories such as

The police program urging the community to use reflective patches

jackets, coats, hats, umbrellas and handbags that incorporate reflective material into their design. The shows also demonstrated the variety and the benefits of reflective material by introducing novel applications such as reflective sashes, shoes with reflective seals attached, reflective key holders, and other products.

To foster a greater sense of familiarity with the material, the police also staged tee-shirt competitions in which all entries incorporated reflective material into their designs.

(5) Delegation of promotional activities

Under this program, municipal heads of government and police chiefs delegated authority to promote reflective material to outside groups, principally community seniors' groups, which were designated as task forces for the wider use of reflective material. In addition to leading by example, these groups organized events where they urged people in the community to use reflective material.

## 4 Promoting the use of reflective material

(1) Promoting experience-based traffic safety education

One of the findings of the campaign by the prefectural police was not unexpected: that monitors who experienced the benefits of using reflective material generally continued to use the material.

In view of this success, the nation will continue to promote hands-on traffic safety educational programs that enable participants to experience the benefits of reflective material and that promote a correct understanding of these benefits.

(2) Encouraging a wider dissemination of reflective clothing and other products that are used on a daily basis

To encourage wider acceptance of the idea of wearing reflective material on a regular basis, one effective approach is to incorporate the material unobtrusively into clothing and daily accessories. This has led the National Police Agency to encourage industry to develop and distribute a wide variety of reflective products by providing support for activities of the Committee to Promote the Utilization of Reflective Material, which comprises representatives of related industries and organizations.
## 2 -3 Enforcing safe driving practices

## Developing better and more effective measures for elderly drivers

Programs for evaluating the competency of senior drivers, which are required for persons over the age of 70, include tests for competencies that are necessary for safe driving. In these programs, participants may be asked either to drive a vehicle or to use driver-competence testing equipment to arrive at evaluations. The goal is to have elderly drivers become aware of the changes that are occurring in their physical functioning and to offer advice and guidance based on the results of the findings. Under existing regulations, persons who participate in these programs are not required to take courses that they normally would be required to upon renewing their licenses. In 2005, a total of 1,558,095 persons participated in these programs. Traffic safety agencies also organized classes for drivers between 65 and 70 years of age, which are held in conjunction with license renewals. These classes endeavored to teach seniors about their own driving tendencies and about the characteristics of accidents in which the elderly were commonly involved.

## 2 -4 Advancing vehicle safety

## I mproving and strengthening the recall system

To prevent the recurrence of fraudulent activity surrounding recalls, the nation took the following steps. First, the nation strengthened the information gathering system for automobile defects by publicizing to drivers the availability of the automobile defect hotline and requiring the manufacturers to issue regular reports on the problems that were arising, and so forth. Second, the nation strengthened its auditing capabilities to permit priority auditing of suspicious manufacturers and to make more resources available for dealer audits. Third, related agencies expanded and improved their technical inspection capabilities by increasing the number of professional recall evaluation personnel (who are experts on automobile technology), by establishing recall inspection and investigation committees, and so forth.

## 2 -5 Improving rescue and emergency services systems

## Enhancing the effectiveness of the doctors-on-helicopters program

The doctors-on-helicopters program, which uses specially equipped emergency helicopters and deploys to emergency sites with a physician on board, got started with the aim of providing better medical care at emergency sites and during patient transportation. The helicopters enable the medical care to commence earlier and patients to be transferred more rapidly to hospitals. As of the end of FY2005, ten emergency stations in nine prefectures operated such helicopters. Operationally, through enhanced coordination among related agencies and groups, the nation made progress on several fronts in this program, including in the sharing of information on zones and locations where helicopters can safely land, in the preparation of an “Operational Manual,” and in the development of a common-frequency radio system.
## Section 2 Railway Transport

## 1 Trends in Railway Accidents

1-1 Operations accidents in recent years

(1) Railway operations accidents $ ^{9} $ have been in a long-term decline, but in 2005 increased to 905, 15.7% above the level of the previous year.

(2) In 2005, casualties from railway operations accidents numbered 1,358 (including 474 fatalities), a 104.8% increase.

(3) Accidents at railway crossings increased by 20.6% to 450, of which operations accidents accounted for roughly one half. Casualties from these accidents numbered 306, which was 20.0% higher than the previous year.

(4) There were four major accidents in 2005, all derailments: on the Tosa-Kuroshio Sukumo Line on March 2; on the JR West Fukuchiyama Line on April 25; on the Hiroshima Electric Railway Company's Ujina Line on October 14; and on the JR East Uetsu Line on December 25.

Changes in Railway Operational Accidents and Casualties

Notes: 1. Source: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport

2. Fatalities are defined as deaths occurring within 24 hours of an accident.
Focus

# Future Directions in Railway Transportation Safety Measures

— From the Eighth Fundamental Traffic Safety Program —

## 1 Basic Thinking

Railways are an indispensable part of the daily life of the nation because of their ability to transport large numbers of people and large quantities of freight rapidly and on time. Given the high-density use of railways today, a single accident will not only severely disrupt the benefits enjoyed by their users but can also cause enormous damage. The nation, therefore, needs to advance various safety measures and to establish an unshakeable trust among the people in the reliability of its railroads.

## 2 Objectives

• Aim to reduce the number of passenger deaths to zero.

• Aim to reduce the number of operations accidents.

## 3 Measures

## (1) Perspectives

To solve the problems that lie behind individual accidents and to implement effective measures that profit from the lessons of past accidents, the nation must advance measures that deal comprehensively with such issues as improving the railway traffic environment, assuring safe operations of railways, and enhancing the safety of train cars.

## (2) Measures to be implemented

{1} Improving the railway traffic environment To ensure the safety of railroad traffic, railway operators must maintain their tracks, safety equipment, and other facilities in highly reliable working order, and make this the foundation of safety for their overall systems. Achieving this will require not only a strict adherence to programs of facilities

Automatic train stop (ATS) device

upkeep and maintenance but also the implementation of policies aimed at upgrading operational safety devices and strengthening the earthquake resistance of railway structures.

## {2} Assuring the safe operations of railways

The nation will encourage the building of safety management systems in which
everyone, from top management to operational personnel, works as a team. Regulatory agencies will also adopt the mechanisms of the “Management Safety Evaluation System,” under which the national government confirms the adequacy of these safety management systems.

Regulatory agencies will also require railways to maintain and enhance the quality of their train crews and safety specialists, and will promote the development of stronger and wider ranging safety audits. They will also endeavor to heighten the public's awareness of safety-related issues through public information activities directed to the nation as a whole.

## {3} Enhancing the safety of train cars

Weighing the progress being made in scientific and technical areas, the nation will take steps to maintain and improve the safety of its train cars. It will do so by reassessing, in a timely and appropriate manner, safety-related technical standards for the structure of rail cars and the equipment used in them, and by urging the adoption of more effective methods and programs of inspection.

## {4} Improving rescue and emergency services systems

When a major railway accident occurs, crews must be promptly and unerringly mobilized to care for evacuation, rescue and emergency medical needs. To prepare for these situations, regulatory agencies will carry out increasingly comprehensive disaster drills at major train stations and strengthen systems of coordination and cooperation between railway companies and the agencies that will be coming to assist them: fire departments, medical institutions and others.

## {5} Promoting measures for the support of victims

The nation will strengthen its support of victims who are seeking compensation for losses, and will promote measures that are sensitive to the psychological and spiritual needs of victims. Particularly in the event of catastrophic accidents, the police, medical institutions, local governments, and private victims-support organizations will act in concert to support victims.

{6} Improving capabilities in research and development and investigation and analysis In addition to supporting further research and development into ways of preventing railway accidents, the nation will advance measures that support programs of comprehensive investigation and analysis into the causes of accidents.
## 2 Railway Traffic Safety Measures

## 2 -1 Improving the railway traffic environment

## Upgrading operational safety devices

Trains are being operated at increasingly higher speeds, on increasingly crowded tracks. To ensure the safety of train operations under such conditions, the nation will promote the improvement of centralized traffic control devices (CTC). Also, based on a plan for emergency improvements that was adopted in the wake of the JR West Fukuchiyama Line derailment, regulators have directed railway companies to complete the installation of ATS devices (automatic train stop) which prevent trains from traveling above allowable speeds on sharply curving sections of tracks. The deadline for the completion of this work has been set at 2009.

## Strengthening the earthquake resistance of railway structures

Based on evaluations made by the “Conference on Shinkansen Derailment Countermeasures,” the nation implemented measures to strengthen tunnels where reinforcement against earthquakes became necessary following the confirmation of active faults along their routes. The nation also adopted measures to strengthen the earthquake resistance of pillars that are supporting elevated tracks. The problematic pillars have been weakened by above-ground concrete laid near their midway points. The nation also took steps to strengthen pillars for elevated tracks along other sections of the bullet train route and along older commuter and express lines.

## 2 -2 Assuring the safe operations of railways

Improving educational programs for trains crews and safety specialists; enhancing the basic competence of personnel

To ensure that those seeking to operate power cars (hereinafter, “train operators”) have the temperament and other qualities to perform the job competently, the nation implemented a system of exams for train operators. It also convened an evaluation committee that examined the issue of how to enhance the competence of train operators. This committee looked into various methods of educating train operators and of improving their occupational environment.

## I mproving the management of train operations and crews

In the area of traffic control systems, regulators directed railway companies to take steps to establish rapid and efficient driver command systems. These steps included increasing the number of radios available for operational commands and intra-crew communications, and introducing centralized traffic control (CTC) devices. In terms of personnel management, regulators directed railway companies to foster a greater awareness of the importance of safety among their employees. They also directed train companies to improve their systems of safety management by establishing procedures that enable them to closely monitor the psychological and physical condition of their crews at the time they begin work—to enable the crews to perform their jobs competently and to ensure safe driving.
Focus

## Accident Investigation and Safety Measures Relating to the Derailment Accident on the JR West Fukuchiyama Line

On April 25, 2005, the first five cars of a train traveling on a curved section of the track between Tsukaguchi Station and Amagasaki Station on the JR West Fukuchiyama Line derailed, catapulting the first two cars into a condominium on the left side of the tracks. This catastrophic accident resulted in 107 deaths and 549 injuries (as reported by the Emergency and Rescue Section of the Fire and Disaster Management Agency at 9:00 a.m., May 24). Currently, members of the Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission (ARAIC) are working diligently to uncover the causes of the accident. An outline of the course of the investigation to date, and of the safety measures adopted as a result, is as follows.

## 1 Accident investigation

On April 25, ARAIC sent two commissioners and five railroad accident investigators to the accident site. From then until August 31, the commission chairman, ARAIC commissioners, and commission experts spent a total of 30 man-days at the site; the bureau chief and railroad accident investigators spent another 256 man-days there. Recognizing the urgency of considering measures that would prevent the reoccurrence of such accidents, ARAIC issued an interim report on its investigations on September 6 and made a number of recommendations to the Minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT). Its recommendations touched on such issues as enhancing the performance of ATS devices, making sure that other trains are protected from secondary damage at the time of such accidents, installing and using devices that record the condition of trains on the tracks, and enhancing the precision of speed sensors. The commission is currently continuing its investigations with the aim of arriving at its final conclusions on the causes of the accident.

## 2 Safety measures

Following the accident, MLIT instructed railway companies to complete installation of ATS and other devices which prevent trains from traveling at excess speeds around sharp curves on the track. The ministry also convened its Technical Standards Evaluation Committee to reassess the levels of safety required by current technical standards in light of accidents that have occurred in recent years. In November, the committee issued its interim findings, which proposed to the ministry that standards be set for the installation of speed control devices at curves and switches and at the end of tracks. Based on these recommendations, MLIT promulgated its revised technical standards on March 24, 2006.

Another important development in terms of safety measures was the passage on March 29, 2006 of the “Law to Amend the Railway Business Law to Enhance Transportation