Japan to make automatic-emergency braking mandatory
The Japanese government will make its domestic carmakers fit all new and remodelled passenger cars with automatic-emergency braking (AEB) from November 2021 amid a rise in the number of traffic accidents involving older motorists.
Models already on the market will be required to be equipped with such systems from December 2025. For imports into Japan made by overseas marques, new vehicles will be required to be equipped with AEB from about June 2024 and for existing models from about June 2026.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLITT) will also apply stricter standards on automatic-brake systems compatible with a UN international standard set to come into effect in January.
“Accidents caused by elderly drivers are a pressing issue that needs to be tackled by mobilising every possible measure,” says Kazuyoshi Akaba, Transport Minister. He also warns accidents can be caused by having too much trust in AEB and reiterated calls for careful driving.
More than 80 per cent of new domestic vehicles had already been equipped with AEB in 2018, according to the MLITT.
The new international standard on automatic brakes, compiled in June by a committee of the World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations, an affiliate of the UN Economic Commission for Europe, will be reflected in Japan’s road-transport vehicle law.
The new standard includes requirements such as preventing a car travelling at 40kph from colliding with a stationary vehicle ahead or being driven at 30kph from hitting a pedestrian crossing a road.
The ministry adds 80 car accidents reported in Japan between January and September 2019 were caused by drivers apparently placing too much confidence in automatic brakes, with 18 of them resulting in injuries or death. In 2018, such incidents totalled 101 and in 2017 the figure was 72, according to the ministry.
AEB uses a radar system to detect and monitor vehicles and other objects ahead, and can alert the driver to the danger of a collision before the brakes are applied automatically.
But the MLITT says automatic brakes do not operate if the camera installed in the car cannot recognise objects in the dark, if a pedestrian or another vehicle emerges abruptly, or if a driver stamps on the fuel pedal.
