The campaign’s launch date intentionally coincides with that of the Japanese government’s nationwide spring traffic safety campaign (April 6-15) carried out by the National Police Agency.

Although road fatalities in Japan fell 0.9% last year to 4,373, marking the thirteenth consecutive annual decline, whilst road accidents and injuries fell for the ninth successive year, to 629,021 and 781,494 respectively, these numbers remain excessively high. 

The Japanese government has responded by taking measures to reduce the number of annual road fatalities to fewer than 3,000 by 2015, in line with its goal of making Japan’s roads the safest in the world.

In a statement, JAMA said: ‘Road safety is also an issue of utmost concern for JAMA, which fully supports the government’s road fatalities reduction goal. JAMA’s own initiatives towards that goal include not only vehicle-based safety-enhancing measures but also road user-directed measures, including its twice-yearly road safety campaigns, in spring and autumn, which JAMA conducts in a sustained push for safer motoring conditions nationwide.’

Priority issues addressed in JAMA’s 2014 spring road safety campaign include seatbelt use in rear seats for passenger vehicle users. JAMA said that the use of rear seatbelts has been compulsory in Japan since June 2008. However, seatbelt use by rear-seat passengers in passenger vehicles driving on regular roads (ie, other than expressways) was tracked in 2013 at only 35.1%, far lower than the rates of seatbelt use by drivers (98.0%) and front passengers (93.9%). JAMA’s spring road safety campaign will therefore strongly promote rear seatbelt use, particularly since the accident fatality rate of unbelted backseat passengers is more than four times greater than that of backseat passengers who have buckled up.

The campaign will also address the proper wearing of helmets for motorcycle riders.

A campaign website, at http://campaign.jama.or.jp/, will show an infomercial promoting rear seatbelt use and will also feature a road traffic safety quiz offering chances to win prizes.