Traffic Deaths in the Municipalities of Japan (2003)

Japan's road traffic accident fatalities in 2003 dropped below the 8,000 mark for the first time in 46 years, totaling 7,702. But the numbers of accidents and injuries both continued to increase over the preceding year, thus indicating a persisting trend of alarming accident situation.   In an effort to fight road accidents, since 1995 ITARDA has been supplying statistical data translated into the number of fatalities per 10,000 population in each of the municipalities throughout Japan. As these data enable comparisons of fatality frequency among municipalities, local administrations and related agencies are making use of the data in their traffic safety activities.   A fatality is defined as a death within 24 hours resulting from a traffic accident. For detailed analysis, the statistics divide fatalities into those from accidents on surface roads and those on expressways. But the number of fatalities per 10,000 population is calculated exclusively from fatalities on surface roads and is ranked from high to low.

Prefectures (Unit: Persons)

Aichi Akita Aomori Chiba Ehime Fukui Fukuoka Fukushima Gifu Gunma Hiroshima Hokkaido Hyogo Ibaraki Ishikawa Iwate Kagawa Kagoshima Kanagawa Kochi Kumamoto Kyoto Mie Miyagi Miyazaki Nagano Nagasaki Nara Niigata Oita Okayama Okinawa Osaka Saga Saitama Shiga Shimane Shizuoka Tochigi Tokushima Tokyo Tottori Toyama Wakayama Yamagata Yamaguchi Yamanashi

Summary Traffic Accidents in 2003    2002 Comparison Accidents 947,993 11,272 -1.2% Deaths 7,702 -624 -7.5% Injured 1,181,431 13,576 -1.2% *"Accidents" resulting in deaths and/or injuries. Average fatalities per city, ward, town, and village    Numbers of municipalities Fatalities Fatalities per 10,000 population Average Previous year comparison Average Previous year comparison Cities excluding major cities / Tokyo wards 667/23 6.08 6.40 -5.0% 0.52 0.55 -5.8% Wards of major cities 128 5.33 6.52 -18.2% 0.35 0.43 -18.8% Towns 1,947 1.12 1.25 -10.2% 0.91 0.99 -8.4% Villages 550 0.52 0.55 -4.9% 1.22 1.26 -3.3% Nationwide 3,315 2.22 2.41 -8.0% 0.58 0.63 -8.2% The most populated of the 1,159 municipalities recording no fatalities Cities with no fatalities: 29 cities Population Kokubunji city   (Tokyo) 110,832 Ashiya city    (Hyogo) 88,437 Ayase city    (Kanagawa) 79,824 Kunitachi city    (Tokyo) 71,679 Zushi city    (Kanagawa) 59,795 Wards of major cities with no fatalities: 4 wards Population Izumi-ku      (Yokohama city) 149,460 Miyakojima-ku    (Osaka city) 94,858 Nakagyo-ku    (Kyoto city) 92,974 Higashiyama-ku    (Kyoto city) 41,231 Towns with no fatalities: 776 towns Population Nagakute-cho      (Aichi) 41,008 Kannabe-cho      (Hiroshima) 40,991 Shime-machi      (Fukuoka) 38,773 Tomiya-machi      (Miyagi) 38,571 Togo-cho      (Aichi) 37,825 Villages with no fatalities: 350 villages Population Fujimi-mura    (Gunma) 22,263 Niisato-mura   (Gunma) 16,576 Shinto-mura    (Gunma) 14,027 Minamiminowa-mura   (Nagano) 13,251 Rokkasho-mura    (Aomori) 11,944 Cities, wards, towns and villages with the highest fatalities per 10,000 population 667 cities excluding major cities & 23 Tokyo wards Population Fatalities per 10,000 population Kumano city    (Mie) 20,566 2.92 Obanazawa city    (Yamagata) 21,752 2.76 Fukagawa city    (Hokkaido) 26,265 2.67 Tosashimizu city    (Kochi ) 18,731 2.67 Bizen city    (Okayama) 28,660 2.44 Wards of major cities: 128 wards Population Fatalities per 10,000 population Chuo-ku    (Osaka city) 58,247 1.20 Atsuta-ku   (Nagoya city) 61,696 0.97 Wakaba-ku    (Chiba city) 148,761 0.81 Taisho-ku    (Osaka city) 73,630 0.81 Chuo-ku    (Fukuoka city) 148,322 0.81 Towns: 1,947 towns Population Fatalities per 10,000 population Nakahechi-cho    (Wakayama) 3,883 10.30 Kyowa-cho    (Hokkaido) 7,178 9.75 Shibetsu-cho    (Hokkaido) 6,267 9.57 Miyama-cho    (Fukui) 5,321 9.40 Kamikawa-cho    (Hokkaido) 5,043 7.93 Villages: 550 villages Population Fatalities per 10,000 population Kawakami-son   (Yamaguchi) 1,224 24.51 Hanazono-mura    (Wakayama) 573 17.45 Shirataki-mura    (Hokkaido) 1,189 16.82 Narusawa-mura    (Yamanashi) 3,087 16.20 Sakauchi-mura    (Gifu) 623 16.05 *Excluding major cities

Notes
1	In calculating the number of fatalities per 10,000 population, statistics on Japan's regional population as of April 1, 2003 were taken from "Zenkoku Shi-Chou-Son-Youran, Heisei-15-Year Version (Ver. 2003)" edited by the Promotion Department, Administration Bureau, Home Affairs Ministry.
2	The Hokkaido villages of Shikotan-mura, Tomari-mura (Kunashiri-gun), Ruyabetsu-mura, Rubetsu-mura, Shana-mura, and Shibetoro-mura were excluded from the aggregate figures.
3	Wards include both special wards and those in major cities.

Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis (ITARDA)