Stricter Rule on Reckless Driving

The Legislative Council of Ministry of Justice released a draft of revising Car Driving Punishment Act to set stricter rules on dangerous driving causing death. It is aimed at imposing strict punishment on dangerous driving with extremely high speed or with excessive taking of alcohol. Regarding current car accidents caused by reckless driving, including some cases made by foreigners, the ministry is going to raise the level of regulation.

Dangerous driving had been generally subjected to “professional negligence” for a long time, since cars became popular for every family in Japan. The government created a concept of “dangerous driving causing death or injury” in 2001, after an accident in which drunken truck driver hit a car and two little girls were killed on a highway. Dangerous driving causes heavier penalty than professional negligence, recognizing malicious violation of law as deliberated, not as careless.

 

Concerning increase of serious traffic accidents in Japan, the council has discussed new system of punishment on illegal driving. The draft proposed a threshold of driving of excessive speed. According to the draft, exceeding a speed limit by 40 kilometers per hour (km/h) on the road with limitation of 60km/h or less, it will be categorized in dangerous driving. If it is on the road with a limit higher than 60 km/h a driving with speed of excessive 50 km/h will also be dangerous. For instance, a driving at speed of 160 km/h on a highway with limitation at 100 km/h is regarded as a dangerous driving with a heavy penalty.

 

On alcohol, if 0.5 milligram of alcohol was detected in driver’s 1 milliliter of blood, or 0.25 milligram in 1 litter of breath, it will be a dangerous driving. Even if the speed and alcohol was under the threshold, the driver will be punished, when the driving was as dangerous as unable to avert. New regulation also included other serious violation of law, such as drifting, in a category of dangerous driving.

 

The Car Driving Punishing Act currently sets definition of dangerous driving with high speed as “difficulty in making ordinary control” and with taking alcohol as “difficult to drive normally.” The heaviest punishment on dangerous driving is 20 years in prison at largest, while 7 years in prison is for professional negligence. The Ministry intends to set new rule with fixed number.

 

In Kawaguchi city in September 2024, a drunken Chinese drove his car on a narrow street with 125 km/h, running backward on an one-way street, and crashed with a car which driver was dead. The court discussed whether that reckless driving was dangerous driving or professional negligence. Most people hoped stricter punishment on the Chinese driver, but the law did not have a clear standard on it.

 

The insufficiency of traffic law caused further criticisms on foreign people in Japan. A driving toward reverse direction on a highway by a Peruvian in May 2025, hitting a number of cars, brought uneasiness to many Japanese citizens. The effort of the ministry to set severe rule may partly be based on currently growing xenophobic sentiment of the Japanese.

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