## Air Traffic Safety Measures

## (1) Strengthening Aviation Safety Measures

## (i) State Safety Program (SSP)

Since April 2014, the Civil Aviation Bureau, as the authorities in charge of the safety of civil aviation, has been implementing the State Safety Program (SSP), which sets forth targets for civil aviation safety and measures to be taken for their attainment, in accordance with Annex 19 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. In FY 2015, the Civil Aviation Bureau, formulated a “Medium-term orientation for the administration of aviation safety” for which the orientation of safety targets for the next five years and of safety measures that should be implemented for their attainment has been outlined. [In going forward, a plan for the implementation of the SSP will be formulated each fiscal year based on the midterm orientation and that efforts will be made to attain the given safety targets.]

The Voluntary Information Contributory to Enhancement

of the Safety (VOICES) program has been operated since July 2014 in order to collect more information relating to aviation safety that is not subject to mandatory reporting and harness such information for the improvement of safety. Recommendations such as improving airport operations have been obtained through this program. While dissemination activities have been yielding results and more reports were issued in FY 2015 than in the preceding year, attempts will be made to further increase the number of issued reports through continued work to highlight the importance of safety information. Efforts will also be made to improve safety by making use of obtained recommendations.

## (ii) Air Transport Safety Measures

While passenger deaths aboard specific Japanese air carriers have not occurred since 1986, efforts are being made to reinforce the safety management system adopted by airlines and preventive safety measures are being promoted to appropriately deal with safety-related issues. As well, preliminary reviews upon the launch or expansion of a domestic airline and strict (including unannounced) and systematic on-site audits are properly conducted. Also, in accordance with the increased entrance of foreign airlines following the promotion of the open sky policy, monitoring of foreign airlines entering Japan were strengthened with site inspections and other measures.

## (iii) Certification of Domestic Jetliners

With the development of Japan’s first domestic jetliner, the MLIT, as the national government of design and manufacturing, certification is under way concerning compliance with safety and environmental standards. To implement certification more appropriately and smoothly, the establishment and expansion of the certification organization, along with close coordination with the aviation authorities of the United States and Europe, are being carried out. The MLIT carried out safety evaluation to determine whether to allow test aircraft to undergo test flights based on the results of strength tests, function tests, and analyses conducted for the first flight by designers, which included taxing tests began in June 2015. Special flight permit was issued at the end of October 2015. Subsequently, the first flight was successfully completed in November of the same year. Test flights are slated to be carried out using five different test aircraft to certify compliance with standards and performance and the MLIT will proceed the safety assessment.

## (iv) Safety Measures Applicable to Unmanned Aircraft

Nowadays, we are seeing unmanned aircraft such as drones, which are rapidly gaining in popularity, used in more and