In the future, considering that bridges and other road structures will rapidly age, to investigate and review the optimal standards for the appropriate maintenance of road structures, a “road maintenance technical subcommittee” was established to create a maintenance cycle for maintenance and management including the improvement of measures for things such as inspections, diagnosis, and repairs as well as life cycle extension plans for the interim report.

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 and for government ordinances, the facilities subject to renovation and repairs by 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 visual inspections in close proximity for bridges and tunnels once every five years.

In addition, on April 14, 2014, the “Recommendations for the Full-Scale Implementation of Road Aging Countermeasures” was published by Panel on Infrastructure Development Road Subcommittee for the establishment of maintenance cycles (clarifying the obligations of road administrators) and to create a framework that runs the maintenance cycles.

(5) Steady implementation of the “Expressway and Chartered Bus Safety and Security Recovery Plan”

In response to the Kan-Etsu Expressway tour bus accident that occurred in April 2012, the “Expressway and Chartered Bus Safety and Security Recovery Plan” was established in April 2013 to transition and unify expressway tour buses into the new share-ride expressway bus and already established standards for driver replacement shifts and for the remaining measures, these will be definitely implemented in the two years between fiscal 2013 and 2014 and the status of implementation will be followed up and its effects measures as needed to intensively promote measures to improve the safety and regain trust of bus operations.

## Measures to Improve the Safety and Regain Trust of Bus Operations

In the early hours of April 29, 2012, a serious accident where seven passengers were killed and 38 passengers sustained minor to serious injuries occurred when an expressway tour bus crashed into the protective wall of the Kan-Etsu Expressway.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism established an “Accident Response Headquarters” immediately after the accident to gather information and responded to inquiries and requests from victims through the victim support contact point.

Also, after the accident, intensive emergency audits were implemented against expressway tour bus operators and a user contact point for reporting violations was established as part of the “emergency measures” established and implemented to ensure the safety of bus operators by July 2012, and during the busy period of summer, bus pick up and drop off areas nationwide were inspected simultaneously.

to check regulatory compliance.

Afterwards, a “Study Group on the Direction of Bus Services” was held in fiscal 2012 and in accordance with the study findings, the “Expressway and Chartered Bus Safety and Security Recovery Plan” was established and published in April 2013. Based on this plan, individual measures such as transitioning and unifying expressway tour buses into the new share-ride expressway bus, establishing standards for driver replacement shifts to prevent overworking, and transition to fares and pricing systems that reflect the safety costs were implemented swiftly and surely over the two year period of fiscal 2013 and 2014, and the status of implementation will be followed up and its effects measures as needed to intensively promote measures to improve the safety and regain trust of bus operations.