Japan to Reduce Speed Limit on Small Roads in 2026
The Japanese government has announced plans to reduce the speed limit on many smaller roads to 30 kilometers per hour.
At the moment, the speed limit on many of these roads is 60 kilometers per hour, but the government wants to make them safer for road users.
All roads that are less than 5.5 meters wide and do not have a line in the center will be affected. That's about 70% of the country's local roads.
Some of these roads do already have speed limits below 60 kilometers per hour, including some places near schools.
Many of these roads do not have sidewalks, and campaigners have said they are pleased to see the government making roads safer for everyone.
However, the new speed limits won't be used until September 2026.
Yoshiaki Fukuchi, whose 5-year-old daughter was killed when a car hit her in 2006 told the Yomiuri Shimbun: "The government has finally taken a step forward."
According to Kyodo News, about a quarter of traffic accidents in the 11 years up to 2023 took place on roads that do not have a line in the center.
However, the number of accidents in Japan has been decreasing.
There were almost 308,000 traffic accidents in 2023, down from 630,000 in 2013. But in Japan last year 37% of people who were involved in accidents died within 30 days of the accident.
