Photo/Illutration Kato-Denki Inc. President Manabu Kato shows how to use his company’s alarm device in Tokyo’s Taito Ward on Sept. 29 to prevent children from being left behind on buses. (Yosuke Watanabe)

HANDA, Aichi Prefecture—A company here that specializes in anti-auto theft devices has developed an alarm system to prevent children from being left behind on buses.

Kato-Denki Inc., which employs 25, created the potentially life-saving system after two children died alone on parked school buses.

The Hornet safeguard system sounds an alarm when the bus driver turns off the engine.

The alarm won’t stop until a switch installed at the rear of the bus is turned off. That way, the driver can see if any children are still on the bus.

The device is also equipped with ultrasound and shock sensors to detect movements and vibrations made by people after the bus door is locked.

If that happens, the system triggers an alarm in six different melodies at a volume of about 120 decibels, or as loud as an aircraft engine.

“It is a siren also used in the United States,” said Manabu Kato, 56, the company’s president. “If it sounded like a car horn, it would be difficult to pick up because of the street noise.”

The device also simultaneously sends a message to five registered users to report the detection.
The device comes in two price variants. The one bundled with the mail notification system costs 85,800 yen ($583), including tax.

After the company released the device on Oct. 7, it received several thousand orders from across the country, far exceeding its supply by the end of the year.

In July last year, a child trapped in a nursery school bus died in the sweltering heat in Nakama, Fukuoka Prefecture.

In September this year, a child died after being left alone on a school bus operated by a child care center in Makinohara, Shizuoka Prefecture.

Kato-Denki, which has been selling anti-auto theft devices since the mid-1990s, took advantage of its know-how to complete the Hornet system one week after the Makinohara accident.

“I thought I had to start working on it as soon as possible,” Kato said.

According to the transport ministry, about 23,000 school buses are operated by kindergartens and nursery schools around Japan.

“If there is a one-in-10,000 chance (for an accident to happen), it means there will be two accidents from 20,000 (buses),” Kato said. “We want to make use of the device and watch over children in tandem with society, based on the assumption that mistakes can happen.”

The central government decided to require kindergartens and nursery schools to conduct a roll call when pupils are ushered off school buses, and to install safety equipment on the buses starting from April next year.

The government intends to cover the costs of installing the new equipment.

“Fiscal measures will be taken so that the burden of the operators will be practically reduced to zero,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said during a Lower House Budget Committee session on Oct. 17.