ROAD SAFETY - SUCCESS ANAD FAILURE IN JAPAN

The article discsusses the Japanese success in the 1970s in reducing its traffic accidents by 50%. This was brought about mainly by traffic engineering measures to improve the road and the roadside environment. Roadway safety features, traffic regulations, enforcement and punishment, driver administration and control, vehicle inspection, safety educatiion for children, and nationwide road safety campaigns are discussed. In the 1980s, however, those measures that were effective in the decade before are approaching saturation levels. Stress should now be placed on a new policy to improve driver quality. To achieve this, there must be a revision of driver education, traffic regulations, and the way in which traffic regulations are enforced. Particular attention should be focused on reformation of prelicense driver education, and to the education of young drivers.