Silviase/jgov_v1.4_full_ann huggingface dataset:
## (4) Volcanic Disaster Countermeasures

## ① Countermeasures for Sediment Disasters-related Following Heavy Volcanic Activity

For countermeasures against wide area and large-scale sediment-related disasters such as volcanic mudflow and debris flow following heavy volcanic activity such as eruptions, sediment-related control dams are developed. In Sakurajima, heavy volcanic activity is ongoing since 2009 and even light rainfall intensity or small volumes of continuous rainfall is enough to trigger debris flow so continued monitoring and observation as well as debris excavation from the sediment-related control dams is being implemented. Also, Asama Mountain is currently in a state where a middle scale eruption can occur at any time and in preparation for when volcanic activity begins, directory control volcanic sabo works project is being implemented since FY 2012. At Kirishimayama (Shinmoedake), volcanic activity started in January 2011 and since considerable ash

Eruption of Kirishimayama (Shinmoedake) (January 2011)

Source) MLIT

fall was observed, an emergency survey was implemented in accordance with the “Sediment Disasters Prevention Act,” and information regarding the areas and timing where sediment-related disasters were expected was shared with the municipalities. Also, regarding volcanic hazard maps, these are published for 37 volcanoes where the social impact due to volcanic activity is the greatest.

## ② Drafting a Sabo Plan for Urgent Measures for Volcanic Disaster Reduction

To reduce the damage due to sediment disasters from volcanic eruptions, relevant authorities are coordinated per volcano, for emergency hard measures such as the development of sediment control dams and emergency debris excavation as well as emergency responses such as real-time volcano sediment control hazard maps to delineate dangerous areas as part of the promotion of drafting a Sabo Plan for Urgent Measures for volcanic Disaster Reduction consisting of hard and soft measures.

## ③ Japan Meteorological Agency Initiatives

To prevent and reduce volcanic eruption disasters, all domestic volcanic activity is monitored, and volcanic warnings and other rapid and timely information are issued. Especially for the 47 volcanoes chosen by the Coordinating Committee for Prediction of Volcanic Eruption as “volcanoes in need of more intensive monitoring and observation for volcanic disaster mitigation,” observation facilities are developed and volcanic activity is being monitored around the clock. Also, through the joint review of each volcano’s evacuation

Source) MLIT

Development level of volcanic hazard maps, real-time sediment disaster prevention hazard maps, and volcanic alert levels of 47 volcanoes specified as “Volcanoes in need of more intensive monitoring and observation for volcanic disaster mitigation” by the Coordinating Committee for Prediction of Volcanic Eruptions”
plan under the volcano disaster prevention council, volcanic alert levels (operated at 29 volcanoes as of the end of March 2013) are being initiated and improved.

## ⑷ Japan Coast Guard Initiatives

Precursor phenomenon to the eruption of volcanoes in sea area, such as discolored water, is observed and such information is noticed to mariners. In addition, comprehensive surveys are conducted to compile basic information on volcanoes in sea area for the prediction of eruptions. Monitoring of crustal movements by GPS at isolated islands in the south part of Kanto district is also conducted.

## ⑤ Geospatial Information Authority of Japan Initiatives

## (a) Improved Observation and Monitoring of Volcanic Activities

Three dimensional crustal movements around some active volcanoes are continuously monitored by analyzing data of, such as permanent GNSS $ ^{Note 1} $ stations, automatic distance and angle measurement devices and Remote GNSS Monitoring Systems (REGMOS). In addition, GNSS data from other institutions are also processed integrally for denser monitoring. In Ioto island, which is well known by its active volcanic activity, large upheaval (exceeded 1m in total) was observed from 2011 to April 2012.

## (b) Research on Natural Disasters Following Volcanic Eruptions

Besides monitoring the volcanic activities by using data of GNSS or SAR $ ^{Note 2} $ interferometry GSI has been conducting researches in various fields not only for understanding the mechanism but also for improving the technique of observation and analysis.

## (5) Storm Surge and Denudation Measures

## ① Promoting Storm Surge and Tidal Wave Measures

To protect human lives and assets from storm surges and tidal waves caused by frequently occurring storm surges, a combination of hard and soft measures are being promoted such as the development and repair of coastal levees and the issuing of flood prevention warnings.

## ② Promoting Coastal Erosion Measures

Since a variety of factors contribute to coastal erosion across the nation, the administrators of rivers, coasts, shipping
## ② Development of Hazard Maps

For residents to take appropriate evacuation actions when disasters occur, the creation and distribution of hazard maps by municipalities is being promoted to inform residents in advance of evacuation areas and evacuation paths in addition to creating an Internet portal site $ ^{Note} $ where various hazard maps from all over the country can be searched and browsed.

Graphic II-7-2-10 Completion Status of Hazard Maps

## ③ Improvement of Disaster Prevention Weather Information

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issues warnings and advisories for each municipality as well as provides a distribution map, which is named “nowcast”, indicating up to an hour forecast for extreme meteorological phenomena affecting a small area such as tornadoes, thunders, and heavy rains. These warnings, advisories and nowcast are also available to mobile devices.

During the heavy rainfall in the Kii Peninsula caused by Typhoon Talas in 2011, JMA called strong caution to the exceptionally heavy rainfall with weather information following a heavy rain warning and a sediment disaster alert. However, the public and disaster prevention organizations did not recognize the situation as emergent. From this lesson, JMA improved the expressions of message described in weather information, e.g. “never experienced heavy rainfall”, in June 27, 2012 so that people can easily recognize the emergent situation.

Another improvement was achieved in the field of caution to storm. JMA started to describe the predicted maximum instantaneous wind speed in weather information message in addition to maximum (average) wind speed.

## Column

## Providing Information Bulletin on Record Precipitation

### 1. Announcing Information Bulletin on Record Precipitation

From July 11 to 14, 2012, the “Kyushu-hokubu heavy rainfall in July 2012” occurred which caused a major disaster in the northern region of Kyushu. During this event, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued the weather information with expression “never experienced heavy rainfall”. This message was heavily covered by media outlets along with images of flooding caused by the rainfall.

2. How the Information Bulletin on Record Precipitation Came About

During the heavy rainfall in the Kii Peninsula caused by Typhoon Talas in 2011, JMA called strong caution to the exceptionally heavy rainfall with weather information following a heavy rain warning and a sediment
disaster alert. However, during follow-up surveys conducted toward municipalities, it became apparent that the urgency felt by meteorological observatories was not adequately shared with disaster prevention organizations and residents.

As an immediate remedy to this issue, from June 27, 2012, announcement of “weather information on record downpours” began.

### 3. What is Information Bulletin on Record Precipitation?

Meteorological observatories issue weather information in order to supplement weather warnings and advisories or to call for preliminary caution from a day to several days prior to weather warnings and advisories. However, there is an opinion that under conditions when a major disaster is imminent, various and massive information comes to disaster prevention organizations and there are not enough resources to carefully assess the weather information. Therefore, under extremely urgent circumstances, quantitative values should be omitted as much as possible and JMA decided to include a very short text that effectively conveys a sense of danger. One example of such short texts is the “never experienced heavy rain.”

This short text is described in weather information when a very rare form of heavy rainfall that exceeds a return period of 50 years is observed, across a wide range of the country and the rainfall does not cease.

## (10) Strengthening the Crisis Management System

In response to natural disasters, forecasting (Japan Meteorological Agency) natural phenomena that could lead to disaster, in addition to conducting inspections and emergency rehabilitation of facilities during disasters (departments in charge of facility management), and rescue operations at sea (Japan Coast Guard), there are many places with established initial response systems such as the emergency assembly of staff and the establishment of disaster measure headquarters but in light of the disaster response during the Great East Japan Earthquake, the crisis management system needs to be strengthened further. Additionally, using the equipment, manpower, expertise and other resources of MLIT and relevant organizations to support local governments stricken by disaster will be promoted more actively.
together in establishing and strengthening the safety management system and these efforts will be assessed by national government so that the safety management system can be continuously improved under a PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle.

From October 2011 to the end of September 2012, transportation safety management evaluations were conducted for a total of 915 companies (114 rail companies, 87 car companies, 697 shipping companies, and 17 airlines). According to the evaluation results so far, since introducing the new system, the transportation safety management initiatives taken by businesses show a trend of improvement; better information transmission and communication within the company, promoting and utilizing the collection of information on close calls, and improved education and training especially show marked improvement and the effects of this system are becoming apparent.

In addition, the “Policy Vision for Transport Security” compiled in December 2011 following deliberations by the Transport Security Group of the Transport Council, outlines the direction of future security policy along three points; ① For small and medium-sized businesses, the need for raising awareness and dissemination is still high and in addition to the usual implementation of safety management evaluations conducted by a third party certification body, coordination with private sector risk management businesses such as insurance companies needs to be promoted from the raising awareness and dissemination stage; ② For large and medium-sized businesses, the effectiveness and efficacy of the businesses’ initiatives with regard to the transport safety management evaluations will be the focal point and for businesses to ensure the effectiveness of safety management; ③ strengthen the training of officials

for human resources to conduct management evaluations. In response to this, to ensure the effectiveness of public transportation safety regulations, an evaluation system based on data gathering and analysis of accidents and incidents will be established, the transport safety management system will be improved, and raising awareness and dissemination toward small and medium-sized businesses will be promoted as the national government and businesses each take an active role in strengthening their initiatives.

## 2 Railway Transportation Safety Measures

Incidents of operating accidents in railway traffic show a long-term trend of decline $ ^{Note} $ and has leveled off in recent years due to the promotion of level crossing accident prevention measures as well as the development and improvement of safety devices such as Automatic Train Stop (ATS) devices.
## (1) Improving Railway Safety

The JR West Fukuchiyama Line derailing accident served as a catalyst for the revision of the “Ministerial Ordinance to Provide the Technical Standard on Railway” to make the installation of Automatic Train Stop (ATS) devices with functions to limit speed on curbs, driver anomaly detection and train stopping devices, and driving condition recording devices mandatory.

Additionally, the “Railway Strong Wind Measures Committee” was established following the JR East Uetsu Line train derailment to deliberate on appropriate meteorological observation, driving regulations, and wind proofing measures for railways as part of both soft and hard measures for strong winds as well as

Graphic II-7-4-3 Railway Traffic Operating Accidents and Casualty Trends

increasing the installation of wind gauges to strengthen the framework for observing strong winds on railways.

In addition to these, safety audits are implemented on railway operators to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to ensure the safety of transport, the management and maintenance of facilities and fleet, and the handling of operation to prevent accidents.

## (2) Promotion of Railway Crossing Measures

“Gridlocked rail crossings,” $ ^{Note} $ mainly seen in urban areas, cause crossing accidents and chronic traffic congestion requiring immediate measures. For this reason, in accordance with the “Act on Promotion of Railway Crossings” and the “Ninth Fundamental Traffic Safety Program,” the development of grade crossings, structural improvements, and pedestrian bridges as well as improvements of crossing safety facilities for crossing gates are being used to prevent crossing accidents.

FY 2012, three crossing locations were designated as requiring the installation of safety facilities in accordance with the “Act on Promotion of Railway Crossings.”

## (3) Promoting the Development of Platform Doors

To improve the safety of the visually impaired and other rail station users, the installation of platform doors to prevent falling from the platform is being promoted (installed at 564 stations as of the end of FY 2012). Based on the “Basic Policy to Promote Smoothness of Transport etc.” (March 2011) and the “Priority Plan for Social Infrastructure Development” (August 2012), hard measures such as the promoting the development of platform doors and tactile pavings with boundary lines as

Source) MLIT

Source) MLIT
## 4 Air Traffic Safety Measures

## (1) Strengthening Aviation Safety Measures

## ① State Safety Program (SSP)

To prevent aviation accidents and incidents concerning safety from happening, the nation will continue to monitor and evaluate the degree of achieving safety for safety management and initiatives carried out by airlines and airport administrators and are currently evaluating the implementation of a State Safety Program (SSP) as a framework to provide oversight of safety.

## ② Air Transport Safety Measures

For specified Japanese air carriers, Note a passenger fatality accident has not occurred since 1986 but to respond to safety troubles appropriately, in addition to strengthening the safety management system of air carriers, appropriate monitoring and supervision toward air carriers such as safety audits will be implemented as needed for the promotion of preventative safety measures. Also, in light of the increased traffic from foreign airlines due to the

promotion of open sky policies, monitoring will be strengthened with on-site inspections of foreign aircraft entering our country and for the domestically produced passenger aircraft project as the government of the manufacturing nation appropriate and speedy reviews will be implemented.

## (2) Creating an Aviation Security System for Safe Air Traffic

Since the majority of serious incidents concerning air safety operations originate from human error, preventing miscommunication between controllers and pilots and providing controllers and pilots' visual display and transmission systems among other human error measures are being promoted.

Also, since the demand for small aircraft such as helicopters is increasing for disaster response and transport of emergency cases, low altitude flight paths as well as setting departure, arrival, and approach procedures that take into consideration the flight characteristics is being evaluated.
## 5 Determining the Causes of Air, Rail, and Marine Accidents and Preventing Recurrence

The Japan Transport Safety Board published a “Ship Accident Occurrence Hazard Map” for the purpose of $ \textcircled{1} $ facilitating the search of reports and promote utilization, $ \textcircled{2} $ making it easy to confirm risks for the scheduled route and operating locations, and $ \textcircled{3} $ providing points of caution during maneuvering and operation.

For accident investigations, 22 aviation accident investigation reports were published and regarding the

## Ship Accident Occurrence Hazard Map

accident that occurred in January 2011 in Kumamoto Prefecture where a rising aircraft is presumed to have crashed into the hillside, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport was counseled that to prevent air flight accidents during Visual Flight Rules, $ ^{Note} $ pilot organizations and individual pilots need to be informed to always depart in situations where based on the latest meteorological information that visual meteorological condition can be sustained for the entire path; for aviation accidents one case was given counsel, one case was given counsel on safety, and three opinions were presented.

Additionally, 13 railway accident investigation reports were published and of this the major incident where the signal did not display a stop signal on multiple occasions which occurred in Hokkaido in June 2011, the parties relevant to the cause were given continued education and training to take appropriate measures when errors occur and in addition to evaluating safety measures, the implementation of necessary measures was counseled.

Also, 1,136 ship accident investigation reports were published and of this regarding the tugboat capsizing accident which occurred in Ishikawa Prefecture in September 2011, the head of the relevant government agency was counseled to establish a comprehensive management framework for safety and the parties relevant to the cause were counseled on measures to ensure safety for the tugboat’s towing and also made to submit a report on the matter; for ship accidents six cases were given counsel, two cases were given counsel on safety, and four opinions were presented.

## 6 Support for Victims and Families of Public Transport Accidents

In order to ensure the support of victims of public transport accidents, the Public Transport Accident Victims Support Office was established in April 2012. The Support Office serves to ① act as a clearinghouse of information when public transport accidents occur and ② provide mid to long-term coordination functions so that victims can return to normal life after accidents occur; in FY 2012, the victims of the Kan-Etsu Expressway tour bus accident were given support.
## ⑤ Providing Safety Information Through Automobile Assessment

In order to promote the selection of safe automobiles and child seats by users and the development of safer automobiles, the evaluation results of the safety of cars is published. In FY 2012, 12 automobile types and 9 child seat types were newly evaluated.

## ⑥ Improving and Strengthening the Recall System

For the swift and steady implementation of automobile recalls, efforts are made to gather information from automobile manufacturers and users and during the audit of recall operations by automobile manufacturers confirmation and guidance is carried out and for automobiles with concerns for safety and environmental performance, the National Traffic Safety and Environment Laboratory (Incorporated Administrative Agency) will conduct technical verifications using the current model. Also, to strengthen the gathering of defect information from users, public awareness campaigns for the “automobile defect information hotline” (www.mlit.go.jp/RJ/) were actively carried out.

To make the automobile recall system more user-friendly, the information gathering system and research analysis system were strengthened.

In addition, the information collected by MLIT including malfunctions, accidents, and fires are made public and information is provided to users regarding matters that require the attention of users or details necessary for the appropriate usage or maintenance and management or to take appropriate measures when malfunctions occur. Especially, regarding “don’t forget to adjust the shoulder belt of the child seat!” and “be careful so that children do not jam their fingers in moving parts such as the passenger car’s arm rest,” these were widely disseminated to users to exercise caution through press releases.

Also, in FY 2012 the number of recalls submitted was 308 and the number of cars affected was 5,612,979.

## ⑦ Sophistication of Vehicle Inspections

In order to prevent illegal secondary modifications $ ^{Note} $ and the early detection of vehicular malfunctions, information technology is being utilized to make vehicle inspections more sophisticated.

## (6) Protecting Victims with the Automobile Liability Security System

The automobile liability security system, implements various victim relief measure services such as insurance payments of mandatory vehicle liability insurance, relief (governmental indemnity services) for victims of hit-and-run and uninsured car accidents, and payments for caretaker fees and establishment of care facilities for those with heavy residual disabilities based on the principle of the mutual support of the car society and is fulfilling a big role in protecting victims of traffic accidents.

Source) MLIT