By SHIMPACHI YOSHIDA/ Senior Staff Writer
May 13, 2022 at 19:09 JST
Satoshi Ninoyu, chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, in the Diet (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
The chairman of the National Public Safety Commission said he will voluntarily return his driver’s license in the hopes that other elderly drivers will follow suit in the name of public safety.
“I will set an example,” Satoshi Ninoyu, an Upper House member, said at a regular news conference on May 12.
It comes after a spate of traffic accidents that were caused by elderly drivers--a problem that has become magnified by Japan’s rapidly aging population.
Ninoyu, who will turn 78 in September, said he will not renew his driver’s license even though he is eligible to do so.
He said he received a notice informing him that he must undergo cognitive tests and take a driving course before his license can be renewed.
“I’m elderly and I should not cause a traffic accident, so I decided to give up my license,” he said. “I live in an urban area, so there are buses, subways and cabs.”
Ninoyu stopped driving after consulting with his wife and has let go of his car in the wake of a fatal accident in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district in April 2019.
A former government bureaucrat who was 87 at the time drove his car at high speed into two intersections on a red light. A mother and a daughter were killed in the accident, while nine others sustained injuries.
He reportedly kept pressing the accelerator instead of the brake pedal. The car had accelerated up to 96 kph.
The revised road traffic law came into force on May 13, which was designed to deal with the growing seriousness of traffic accidents involving elderly drivers.
The law introduces a driving skill test at the time of license renewal for those aged 75 or older with a certain number of violations. They are required to drive through a course and must pass various tasks, such as stopping at stop signs and turning left and right at intersections.
Only those who reach a passing score can renew their licenses.
It also introduces a “limited” driver's license, which allows holders to drive only vehicles with safety support functions, such as automatic brakes.
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