## (1) Promoting Efficient and Effective Traffic Accident Measures

In recent years, in response to progress in road development, we have entered an era that needs to be able to reproduce community roads with pedestrian and bicycle-only space, by moving automobile traffic to highly safe expressways and dividing road functions in two: roads for pedestrians and bicycles, and expressways for automobiles.

For arterial roads that account for roughly 60% of traffic accident fatalities, effective and efficient accident measures are being promoted through public participation and collaboration under the “accident zero plan (strategy for concentrated relief of accident prone sections)” in order to implement concentrated measures in areas with a high degree of danger for accidents.

(Notes) 1 Up until 1959, minor damage accidents (injuries lasting less than 8 days or less than 20,000 yen in property damage) are not included.

2 After 1966 property damage accidents are not included.

Source) Developed by MLIT from National Police Agency documents

Meanwhile, for community roads where the proportion of accident casualties involving pedestrians and bicycle riders is high, measures are taken for the purpose of ensuring safe pedestrian spaces by suppressing the vehicle traffic and reducing speeds, as well as by converting traffic to arterial roads. Wide-ranging and comprehensive traffic accident suppression measures are being promoted in collaboration with the prefecture public safety commission. These measures include: broad speed regulations combined with narrowing the road, widening the road shoulder, developing the sidewalk, and placing humps to suppress vehicle speed.

## (2) Promoting Safety Measures for School Commute Routes

For school-commuting roads, following a series of accidents in April, 2012 involving groups of children commuting to schools, a “school route emergency joint inspection program” was implemented and included coordination among schools, boards of education, police, and other stakeholders. Intensive support was directed toward the measures based on the results above.

In addition, Japan has instituted a “school-commuting roads safety program” in each municipality to ensure the sustained safety of school-commuting roads, and has implemented regular joint inspections and improved and enhanced other measures as well.

## (3) Safety Driving Support on Expressways Using the IT

The ITS Spot Service and ETC 2.0 service, which uses a vehicle-equipped device that has been available on expressways across the country since August 2011. The services support safety driving by calling attention to accident prone areas or falling objects as well as forewarning of snow and overtopping wave conditions, through the car navigation system.

## (4) Systematic Road Facilities Management to Provide Safe and Secure Road Services

There are about 700,000 bridges nationwide and they are rapidly aging. Therefore, the stakeholders, including municipalities which manage about 500,000 bridges, must maintain, repair, and renew them to ensure their safety.

Additionally, to achieve the appropriate management of the roads, clarifying the need for inspections, creating regulations to designate roads to attract the traffic of large vehicles that impact road structures the most, and persecution of vehicles that violate limits were some of the things included in the amended Road Law that was promulgated for government ordinances. The facilities subject to renovation and repairs by the agency were defined as tunnels and bridges, and technical standards were established for the maintenance and management of roads.

A ministerial ordinance was enacted on March 31, 2014 that clarified the obligations of road administrators, such as