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(1) Present Situation of Traffic Accidents
The trend of traffic accidents by transportation mode in the last three years
is shown in Table 8. The number
of accidents and casualties is generally decreasing or leveling off. Considering
the increase in the number of vehicles and ships, it appears that traffic safety
measures are steadily producing results. Death tolls in road traffic, which
have been declining for nine consecutive years, numbered 8,466 in 1979 (down
3.6% over the perious year), by 8,299 decrease or 49.4%, as compared with 16,765
fatalities in the 1970's peak.
(2) Promotion of Traffic Safety Measures
The Ministry of Transport has been making efforts to ensure traffic safety
in every transportation sector by vigorously enforcing safety measures under
its traffic safety program.
In road traffic, the Council for Transport Technology, an advisory body of
the ministry, reviewed its recommendation made in September 1972 from the standpoint
of ensuring safety with regard to the structure of automobiles and their equipment.
The automobile inspections system was improved and made stricter. For prevention
of accidents which large trucks tend to cause when turning left. The ministry
adopted measures, including one enabling the driver to get a wider field of
vision on a rear-view mirror.
As for railway traffic, the ministry adopted measures for improving the transportation
system itself, including the use of heavier rails. It also has been making efforts
to ensure safe railway operations by providing education and training for train
crews and supervising and guiding railroad operators.
With respect to maritime traffic, the ministry improved the environment in
accordance with the Fifth Five-Year Program for Ports and Harbors Improvement.
It also improved the maritime traffic control system and bolstered maritime
rescue forces by, for example , reinforcement of patrol boats and planes.
As regards air traffic, the ministry promoted the improvement and expansion
of security facilities in accordance with the Third Five-year Program for Airport
Improvement. The training of air traffic controllers was improved and so was
the aircraft inspection and maintenance systems.
Earthquakes occuring in and around the Japanese Islands account for as
much as 10% of all earthquakes in the world. Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone
countries in the world and has a well-established observation system. Japan
recently established the Earthquake Prediction Office in the Cabinet, where
comprehensive and constructive measures are now being worked out under the close
cooperation of administrative organs concerned. Japan's earthquake predicting
technique can be rated among the world's best. The Tokai and the southern Kanto
districts have been designated by the Coordinating Committee for Earthquake
Prediction as "areas where observation efforts should be intensified". In these
areas, various seismological observations are carried out on an increasingly
larger scale in the hope of putting earthquake prediction to practical use.
The demand for earthquake prediction as a means to prevent disaster increased
after it became a well publicized view in 1976 that a big earthquake will occur
in the Tokai district in the near future. Then, after a big earthquake near
Izu Island in January 1978, people became very much concerned about earthquake
prediction. In June 1978, the Law Concerning Emergency Measures Against Large-Scale
Earthquake Disaster was promulgated.
In line with this law, the Prediction Council for the Area Under Intensified
Measures Against Earthquake Disater was established in the Meteorological Agency
in August 1979, under the same date as the designation of the specified earthquake-prone
areas, to provide the Agency's Director-General with judgements on the possibility
of big earthquakes. Also, the organs concerned has been making efforts to create
a disaster prevention system by drawing up a plan for earthquake disaster prevention
in accordance with a basic plan formed in September 1979. (See
Fig 2)
(1) Traffic Nuisance and Countermeasures
a) Automobiles
Automobile exhaust gas emission restrictions are shown in Figure
3. Regulations on gas emission from gasoline-operated passenger cars seem
to have produced expected results, as the volume of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon
and nitrogen oxide emitted from cars has dropped by over 90% since the regulations
were enforced.
The ratio of places along a road whose traffic noise met the environmental
standards in 1978 was still as low as 17.0% (565 out of 3,315 places). The areas
chosen for the survey included typically noisy areas as well as areas where
noise is likely to cause special problems. With regard to the area (a housing
site where quietness should be maintained), only 5.3% (80 out of 1,519 places)
met the standards. (See Fig. 4)
b) Shinkansen-Its Noise and Vibration
Upon the Transport Minister's instructions as approved at a cabinet meeting,
JNR worked out "measures against noise and vibration of the Shinkansen bullet
train" in November 1976 and used them as a basis in carrying out noise source
control measures, vibration source control measures and obstacle removing measures
as regrads existing Shinkansen railways.
c) Aircraft Noise
Aircraft noise prevention measures can be divided broadly into noise source
control measures, improvement in airport structure and airport neighborhood
sound control measures.
As a noise source control measure, the Aviation Law was partially revised
to prohibit, as a rule, the flight of jet planes whose noise exceeded certain
limits, effective as from October 1975. Airplanes owned by Japanese aviation
companies, if they were amenable to noise reduction, have already been remodeled
in line with the revision of the law.
Measures for improvement in airport structure include changing the location
and direction of runways in such a way that taking off and landing do not take
place near and above densely populated areas and constructing green buffer zones.
Airport neighborhood sound control measures include subsidizing soundproofing
of private houses, schools and hospitals, and construction of facilities for
common use, compensating for relocation of buildings and constructing green
buffer zones at 16 airports, in accordance with the Aircraft Noise Prevention
Law. In fiscal 1979, subsidies for complete soundproofing of private houses
were provided. In July 1979, the weighted equivalent continuous perceived noise
level (WECPNL), the designated standard value of the first grade area where
subsidies were provided for soundproofing of private houses, was revised from
85 to 80, and 11 airports including Osaka International Airport and Fukuoka
Airport were additionally designated as the first grade area.
For a radical solution of the aircraft noise problem, it is important to
establish a land utilization system including restrictions on housing construction
in the neighborhood of airports. At the New International Airport, such land
utilization is being considered on the basis of the Special Measures Law for
Counteracting Aircraft Noise Around Specified Airports.
(2) Sea Pollution and Countermeasures
The number of sea pollution cases as confirmed by the Maritime Safety Agency
in the area around the Japanese Islands reached a peak (2,460 cases) in 1973,
declining to 1,733 cases by 1979, although this was an increase from 1,437 cases
in 1978.
Japan has adopted various sea pollution control measures in accordance with
the Law Concerning the Prevention of Sea Pollution and Marine Disaster. In addition,
international cooperation is necessary for prevention of sea pollution. In order
to ratify the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of
Wastes and Other Matter, 1972, and to incorporate it into Japanese laws, Japan
partially revised the Law Concerning the Prevention of Sea Pollution and Marine
Disaster at the 91st session of the Diet and, in May 1980, promulgated the revised
law. Japan is now pushing studies for early ratification and incorporation of
the Protocol of 1978 relating to the International Convention for the Prevention
of Pollution from Ships, 1973.
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