Japan has seen a notable improvement in road safety for 2020. Official data shows that the country’s annual road fatalities dropped below 3,000 for the first time since 1948. There were 2,839 road deaths in Japan during 2020 according to a report by the National Police Agency. This is a reduction of 376 compared with the figure for 2019.
People aged 60 or over accounted for 56.2% of road deaths in Japan, highlighting the risk to the elderly on the country’s road network. But there was also a reduction of 186 in the number of people aged 60 or over being killed in road crashes during 2020 compared with 2019. The largest number of road deaths occurred in the country’s capital, Tokyo, which also saw an increase in cases of speeding and a reduction in traffic volumes during the pandemic.
Japan’s population is estimated to be around 126.5 million at present.
