Silviase/jgov_v1.4_full_ann huggingface dataset:
volcano getting more active. So, training for enhancing the ability to respond for implementation of urgent survey and strengthening cooperation with relative organizations are promoted.

In FY2014, urgent survey was conducted at Ontakesan (Mt. Ontake) erupted in September and provided information obtained in urgent survey.

### i. Issuing Sediment Disaster Alert

When the risk of sediment-related disasters increases due to heavy rainfall, Sediment Disaster Alert is jointly issued by prefectures and the Japan Meteorological Agency in each municipality. Sediment Disaster Alert is used as reference for evacuation orders announced by municipalities and voluntary evacuation of residents. In addition, the grid data indicating the risk of sediment-related disasters as well as precipitation data are provided in detail.

Figure II-7-2-7

Sediment Disaster Alert, and Risk of Sediment Disaster and "High-resolution Precipitation Nowcasts"

Source) Japan Meteorological Agency

## (3) Volcanic Disaster Countermeasures

### a. Countermeasures for Sediment-related Disasters Following Volcanic Activity

In preparation for the volcanic mudflow caused by volcanic eruptions and the debris flow caused by rainfall, sediment control dams, training dike and so on for preventing or reducing damages are being constructed. In addition, for facilities which are unable to properly maintain their functions due to continued and massive debris flow, removing sediment deposition and other measures are being carried out to keep effectiveness.

Sediment-related disasters following volcanic eruptions could lead to large-scale disasters. In addition, it is very difficult to predict the position or scale of the eruption with good accuracy beforehand, causing serious damage. For these reasons, “Volcano Eruption Emergency Mitigation SABO Plans” are being prepared to develop facilities in advance and reduce

Figure II-7-2-8

Development level of volcanic hazard maps, real-time sediment-related disaster prevention hazard maps and volcanic alert levels of 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

damage by immediate measures in accordance with the volcanic activities changing from moment to moment. The plans are being prepared for 29 volcanoes which are active and have a large social impact in case of eruption. Also, to ensure that residents and others can smoothly evacuate from volcanic eruption, MLIT supports municipalities to prepare the “Volcano Hazard Maps”.

When the Ontakesan (Mt. Ontake) erupted in September, 2014, the situation of volcanic ash fall was assessed using helicopters and through field investigation as the urgent survey based on the “Sediment Disaster Prevention Act”, and provided the results of simulation related to the debris flow. In addition, monitoring cameras and sensors were installed and temporary sediment control dams with a block masonry structure were constructed.
Pyroclastic flow status on September 29, 2014

Source) MLIT

Conference for Reviewing Volcano Observation Framework, Etc.

### d. Japan Coast Guard Initiatives

As a precursor to the eruption of oceanic volcanoes, phenomenon such as discolored water in the surrounding sea area is observed and the information is relayed to sailing vessels. Also, to serve as basic data to predict the eruption of oceanic volcanoes, comprehensive studies will be implemented to gather basic information on seabed terrain, geological structure, and other information as well as implement GNSS continuous observation of the Izu Islands sea area to monitor crustal movements.

For Nishinoshima Volcano started to erupt in November 2013 for the first time in 39 years, its area has increased to 2.5 km $ ^{2} $ (including former Nishinoshima) as of March 2015. The status of volcanic activity and change in the island form are continuously monitored using aircrafts.

### e. Geospatial Information Authority of Japan Initiatives

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

At active domestic volcanoes, continuous observation by GNSS-based control stations (GNSS Note 1 successive observation facilities called GEONET), volcanic deformation survey by automatic distance and angle measurement devices, and continuous observation by Remote GNSS Monitoring System (REGMOS) are implemented to continuously monitor the three dimensional deformation of the earth’s crust. Also, the GNSS observation data conducted by other institutions are integrated into the analysis to monitor the crustal deformation in the surrounding area of volcanoes in more detail. In addition, the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (DAICHI 2) started to observe the change in shape of surface of volcanos through use of SAR Note 2 interferometry. Observation such as aerial photography was conducted when Ontakesan (Mt. Ontake) erupted.

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

Research and development is being conducted to

improve precision of observation by use of GNSS and SAR interferometry as well as to reveal the mechanism of volcanic
clarified, and set up the maintenance and repair standards on the premise that coastal protection facilities are inspected in a planned manner and repair is appropriately carried out according to the inspection results.

4. Stranded Vessel Removal Order

Coastal managers could not order to remove the vessels, etc. stranded in the sea areas within the coastal protection areas. However, coastal managers have been legally allowed to order to remove stranded vessels, etc. that can damage coastal protection facilities.

### 5. Establishing the Coastal Cooperation Organization Framework

Recently, private corporations and organizations have implemented a variety of activities at coasts. In order to improve coastal management according to the region-specific circumstances, the coastal administrators have been legally allowed to assign corporations and organizations that voluntarily carry out various activities such as cleaning, planting, protection of endangered animals and plants and perform coastal management appropriately and securely as coastal cooperation organizations.

Locating the Levees, Etc. with a Disaster Mitigation Function at Coastal Protection Facilities

Developing the Standards for Maintenance and Repair of Coastal Protection Facilities

Developing the Rules for Operating Floodgates and Land Locks

Stranded Vessel Removal Order

Source) MLIT

Establishing the Coastal Cooperation Organization Framework

### b. Providing Disaster Prevention Information Regarding Tsunamis

In order to strive for the prevention and mitigation of disasters caused by tsunamis, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) is monitoring seismic activities across the nation around the clock in order to make quick and appropriate issuance for tsunami warnings/advisories and information. Based on the lessons learned from the tsunami disaster caused by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, JMA started new tsunami warning system operation such as use of the word “huge” for Major Tsunami Warnings in the case of large earthquakes with magnitude 8 or more to emphasize that it is an emergency situation from March 2013.

As of March 2015, JMA monitors tsunamis with 38 Ocean-bottom tsunami meters, 18 GPS wave gauges, and 172 coastal tsunami gauges for issuance of tsunami information and update of tsunami warnings/advisories.

To facilitate tsunami measures for vessels, the Japan Coast Guard creates and publishes a tsunami disaster prevention information map for the expected behavior of tsunamis in port areas based on new assessments of the massive earthquake which occurs along the Nankai Trough (Cabinet Office, August 2012).

### c. Tsunami Evacuation Measures

Because there are concerns for tsunami disasters caused by large earthquakes such as the massive earthquake which occurs along the Nankai Trough in the future, a technical guidance was created to compile methods for ensuring the appropriate placement of evacuation and other facilities utilizing the basic data of urban plans which was released in June 2013.
## Movement of Vehicles by Road Administrators Based on the Disaster Countermeasure Basic Act

Based on the experience obtained from the heavy snowfall that occurred in Kanto and Koshin Regions in February, 2014, the “Disaster Countermeasure Basic Act” (hereinafter referred to as the “amended disaster countermeasure act”), amended in November 2014, allowed road administrators to specify road sections and order drivers of vehicles to move their vehicles out of roads when it is necessary to secure passage for emergency vehicles. In addition, the “amended disaster countermeasure act” allows road administrators to move vehicles and other obstructions by themselves when the drivers do not follow orders to move their vehicles or if they are absent.

When heavy snowfall occurred in 2014, the “amended disaster countermeasure act” was positively applied to quickly remove stalled vehicles for effective snow clearing work, as well as to reduce traffic closing times. In 2014, only 48 sections of highways and national roads were specified and eight vehicles were forcibly removed by road administrators (as of March 31, 2015).

Occurrence status of stalled vehicles (February 15, 2014)

Source) MLIT

Forced removal of left vehicles (January 2, 2015)

Source) MLIT

## Appealing to Drivers

To secure winter road traffic, cooperation of drivers in attaching winter equipment is essential. For this reason, drivers are asked to pay attention to weather and traffic information provided at Michi-no-Eki, service areas and parking areas, as well as to attach appropriate equipment such as winter tires and chains.

Regional development bureaus and expressway companies announce in advance the road sections that could be closed early when unusual snowfall occurs and they appeal to the vehicles without appropriate winter equipment to avoid passing through these sections.

* Road sections scheduled to be closed (http://www.mlit.go.jp/road/bosai/road_closed/)

Where unusual snowfall can occur, the “Unusual Snowfall Countermeasures Headquarters of MLIT” will make an urgent announcement. On December 31, 2014, during the New Year period when heavy snow was expected, the “Unusual Snowfall Countermeasures Headquarters of MLIT” showed drivers the damages and impacts that occurred in the past under similar weather conditions in order to call for caution, such as refraining from going out unless necessary. As a result, this was reported on the evening TV news, Web news, and so on.
## (8) Sophistication of Disaster Prevention Information

### a. Aggregation of Disaster Prevention Information

The “MLIT Disaster Prevent Information Center Note $ ^{1} $ ” enables citizens to easily obtain and utilize disaster prevention information by aggregating and providing information available such as rainfall as well as provide a comprehensive array of information on disaster responses and disaster prevention from a single source.

### b. 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 in addition to creating an Internet portal site Note $ ^{2} $ where various hazard maps from all over the country can be searched and browsed.

### c. Improvement of Disaster Prevention Weather Information

The Japan Meteorological Agency issues warnings and advisories by municipality as well as provides distribution maps, which are named “nowcasts”, indicating up to an hour forecast for extreme meteorological phenomena affecting a small area such as tornadoes, thunder, and heavy rains. In August 2014, provision of “High-resolution Precipitation Nowcasts” started to allow the half-hour forecast of precipitation distribution to be seen at 250-mesh resolution (four times higher than before). The “High-resolution Precipitation Nowcasts” is compatible with smartphones. For Hazardous Wind Watch, since September 2014, improvements have been made to provide the information indicating that there is an increasing possibility of occurrences of strong gusts such as tornadoes in the vicinity of the area where a tornado was witnessed in the case where a report of sighting of the tornado was obtained.

## (9) Strengthening the Crisis Management System

In response to natural disasters, forecasting natural phenomena that could lead to disaster (Japan Meteorological Agency), 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.
Operation Plan.

Column

# Efforts to Improve Functions of Disaster Prevention Application Software

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in 2011, public awareness on disaster prevention has been improved. In recent years, local governments and private enterprises have created and supplied a lot of disaster prevention application software that provide various kinds of disaster prevention map information through smartphones and cell phones. To promote development of versatile and practicable disaster prevention application software that allow highly reliable disaster prevention map information to be used anywhere at any time, it is essential to provide people with much more various kinds of disaster prevention map information. For this purpose, in 2014, the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan and the MLIT Water and Disaster Management Bureau advertised for disaster prevention application software in cooperation of the Cabinet Office.

As part of these efforts, various kinds of disaster prevention map information were created and provided to the public for the model district Kainan City in cooperation of Wakayama Prefecture and Kainan City, and a lot of useful applications for disaster prevention application software were developed using the information. In addition a review committee consisting of academic experts was held to select disaster prevention application software with superb functions with comprehensive consideration given to availability, user-friendliness, and so on. Further validation test for evacuation guidance with the cooperation of citizens, using some of the selected disaster prevention application software which are useful in the case of evacuation (especially, for searching and mapping the information of evacuation routes and evacuation area), was carried out with a disaster drill in Kainan city, Wakayama Prefecture.

Regarding the efforts stated above, the developers (applicants) of the applications expressed the opinion that the efforts are ambitious, forward-looking and stimulating and that they want to develop more practicable applications on the basis of the result of the validation test. The participants in the validation test expressed the opinion that they want to use disaster prevention map information easily on a routine basis through such efforts and that the disaster prevention map information should be utilized for disaster prevention learning.

The disaster prevention application software were developed using lots of information such as evacuation areas and hazard maps; however, the information needs to be highly utilized to contribute more to evacuation guidance and so on. Also, the users have many opinions about improvements in user-friendliness and functions, and it is necessary to provide more disaster prevention map information and develop and spread disaster prevention application software. Based on the above-mentioned results, further efforts will be made to improve provision of disaster prevention map information to the people.

Validation Test for Evacuation Guidance Conducted in Kainan City, Wakayama Prefecture

Source) Geospatial Information Authority of Japan
resistance standards for conveyors and safety device installation standards for luggage elevators for luggage will be taken as well.

## Section 4

## Strengthening Safety Measures in the Transport Sector

Ensuring safety is a central and fundamental issue in the transport sector and once an accident occurs not only can it cause significant damages but also has an enormous impact on society so various measures are being undertaken to prevent accidents from occurring.

## Building and improving the safety management system in public transportation

In October, 2006, “Transport Safety Management System” was introduced in the wake of frequently occurring troubles and accidents, which was seen to be caused by human error in each transportation mode. This is to build and strengthen the safety management system, which will be united with the organization, including the fields which are under the proactive involvement of the top management, in the transportation business, coupled with election system of “safety managers” and creation of “safety management regulations. The country has to check the system through advice and evaluation, which is intended to continuously improve the safety management system using the PDCA cycle.

In FY2014, transportation safety management assessment was carried out on a total of 465 companies (75 railway companies, 107 automobile companies, 262 shipping companies, and 21 aviation companies).

Moreover, in the “policy vision for transportation safety”, which was compiled in December, 2011, through the deliberation of transportation safety committee, under the transportation council, 1) strengthening of widespread awareness activities for small and medium-sized companies; 2) ensuring the effectiveness of safety management, with the focus on large and medium sized business; 3) promote the efforts of the three points shown to enhance the training and security of human resource, which performs the management evaluation; is the direction of the policies to ensure safety in future.

(Note) 1-14 on the radar chart correspond to the item reference numbers in the "Guidelines for Transport Operators to Conduct Safety Management - For the Further Improvement of Transport Safety" formulated and published in March 2010 and indicate the rate of sufficiency for the implementation of each item.
Implementation of effective evaluation in the wake of expansion of all chartered bus operators (about 4,200 people), specifically for the mandatory implementation of transportation safety management system, and spread awareness to small to medium-sized business, through utilization of certification seminar systems (private institutions that are certified by MLIT to carry out the seminars), founded in July, 2013. About 14,000 people had participated by the end of December, 2014 in these certification seminars.

For the transportation safety management system, the MLIT will improve the effectiveness of the system and disseminate its concept to all the operators for enhancement and strengthening in the future.

## 2 Railway Transportation Safety Measures

Driving accident numbers for railway traffic show a declining trend over the long term $ ^{*} $ Note due to factors like the promotion of driving assistance facilities including automatic train stop systems (ATS) and rail crossing measures, but the trend is plateauing in recent years, requiring the promotion of further safety measures.

## (1) Improving Railway Safety

In the light of past accidents, measures, like creation of necessary standards, will be implemented, and direction will be given to railway operators to ensure implementation, as well as, confirm the status of implementation for safety audits, and give feedback on audit results for further implementation of measures to improve the safety of railways.

### a. Measures that were triggered by the JR West Fukuchiyama line derailing accident

The “Ministerial ordinance to define the technical standard related to the Railways” was revised to make the installation of Automatic Train Stop (ATS) devices, with functions to limit speed on the curves,

driver anomaly detection, and train stopping devices; and driving condition recording devices mandatory.

### b. Measures from the JR East Uetsu line derailment

A “Railway Wind Measures Council” was convened to consider both non-structural and structural measures for strong winds and in addition to installing additional wind gauges, the wind observation system for railways was strengthened, along with other measures.

c. Measures taken to ensure the safety of JR Hokkaido, from the JR Freight Hakodate Line Train Derailment

JR Hokkaido has instructed to implement the “Measures to be taken by JR Hokkaido” as business improvement order and supervision order, in January, 2014, and carryout supervision and guidance through periodic reports, permanent audit systems to reliably execute the same.
## (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, the road administrators and railway operators work together to prevent railroad crossing accidents, by developing crossing facilities such as flyovers, structure improvement, and pedestrian bridges, and through the maintenance of railroad crossing safety equipment, such as railway crossing barriers, based on the “Improving the Railway Crossings Act” and the “9 $ ^{th} $ traffic basic traffic safety plan”.

In 2014, immediate measures were implemented for the development of safety equipment and expansion of sidewalks and drastic measures for railroad crossing disposals, through continuous steric intersection measures. This was pursued along with developing safety equipment, which was specified in all 6 railroad crossings, and structural improvements, such as widening the railroad crossing in all 36 places, as well as the creation of railroad crossings in 43 places, based on the “Railroad crossing improvement and promotion act”.

In addition, the “Railroad crossing and traffic safety records” were created and published in 2015, with the aim of intensively continuing the promotion of safety measures for pedestrians crossing railroads.

## (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 615 stations as of the end of FY2014). Based on the “Basic policy to promote smoothness of transport etc.” (March 2011), the “Priority plan for social infrastructure development” (August 2012) and the “Basic Plan on Transport Policy” (February 2015), structural measures, such as promoting the development of platform doors and tactile paving with boundary lines, as well as, technology development for platform doors with better carriage door alignment; and non-structural measures, such as “friendly manners campaign” calling on rail users to offer assistance to those with visual impairment, are being promoted.

Platform Door

Source) MLIT

Tactile Paving with Boundary Lines

Source) MLIT

Friendly Manners Campaign

Source) MLIT

## 3 Safety Measures for Maritime Traffic

In the sea areas surrounding Japan, around 2,500 vessels are involved in marine accidents every year. Once a marine accident occurs, not only are precious lives and property lost, but Japan’s economic activities and marine environment may be adversely affected in a major way, requiring the promotion of further safety measures.