By SHUN NIEKAWA/ Staff Writer
December 18, 2019 at 15:55 JST
A car equipped with automatic braking detects an obstacle and brings the vehicle to a stop on Sept. 26 in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
All new cars sold in Japan must be fitted with automatic brakes starting from November 2021, the transport ministry said in announcing the world's first such requirement on Dec. 17.
It said installment of the technology, called Advanced Emergency Braking System, will become mandatory in phases.
The move is in response to growing concerns about accidents caused by elderly drivers.
All new cars, including minitrucks, must be equipped with automatic brakes by September 2027, the ministry said.
The automatic braking systems will be required to meet safety standards established in June by a U.N. working group of experts.
Automatic braking systems were installed in 84.6 percent of new cars sold in Japan in 2018, but most fell short of the U.N. standards.
The ministry also announced it will introduce a program from fiscal 2020 to certify the performance of a device that prevents a driver from suddenly accelerating by accidently depressing the accelerator pedal instead of the brake. The certification program is expected to start from fiscal 2021.
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