Information No.76 2008
Traffic Fatalities in the Municipalities of Japan (2007)

Traffic Fatalities in the Municipalities of Japan (2007)
  The Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis (ITARDA) has been comparing traffic accident deaths per 10,000 population for each municipality nationwide since 1995. The data has been used by local governments and various organizations for traffic safety activities.
  The number of traffic accidents in 2007 dropped 6.1% from the preceding year, by approximately 50,000 accidents to 832,454. This was the third consecutive year of decline. The number of traffic accident deaths likewise fell 9.6%, by 608 victims from the year before to 5,744, falling below 6,000 for the first time in 54 years. Although traffic accidents and casualties seem to be declining steadily, the number of non-fatal injuries has continued to exceed a grim 1 million since 1999, even though the number itself fell 5.8% from the year before to 1,034,445 in 2007.
  The number of fatalities shown in the tables means casualties who died within 24 hours of traffic accidents. "Number of fatalities per 10,000 population" is calculated from fatalities on non-expressways.
* Non-expressways refer to roads other than national expressways and designated motor highways.
Prefectures (Unit: Persons)
Hokkaido Aomori Iwate Miyagi Akita Yamagata Fukushima
Tokyo Ibaraki Tochigi Gunma Saitama Chiba Kanagawa
Yamanashi Niigata Nagano Toyama Ishikawa Fukui Shizuoka
Gifu Aichi Mie Shiga Kyoto Osaka Hyogo
Nara Wakayama Tottori Shimane Okayama Hiroshima Yamaguchi
Tokushima Kagawa Ehime Kochi Fukuoka Saga Nagasaki
Kumamoto Oita Miyazaki Kagoshima Okinawa

Outline
Traffic Accidents in 2007 and Population
   2007
Non-expressways Expressway All roads
Number of accidents 819,780 12,674 832,454
Fatalities 5,500 244 5,744
Injuries 1,013,440 21,005 1,034,445
Population     127,053,471
Notes:
1. Accidents involving casualties only
2. Population is as of March 31, 2007, recorded in the Nationwide Municipality Directory.


Fatalities in 2007 in Government-Designated Cities
Government-Designated Cities Population(in 10 thousand) Fatalities per 10,000 population Fatalities Number of Administrative Wards
Yokohama 356.3 0.22 78 18
Osaka 251.0 0.29 73 24
Nagoya 215.4 0.33 72 16
Sapporo 187.4 0.26 49 10
Kobe 150.3 0.25 37 9
Kyoto 139.0 0.27 37 11
Fukuoka 136.4 0.22 30 7
Kawasaki 131.6 0.22 29 7
Saitama 117.9 0.17 20 10
Hiroshima 114.5 0.29 33 8
Sendai 100.1 0.23 23 5
Kitakyushu 98.7 0.36 36 7
Chiba 91.0 0.30 27 6
Sakai 83.2 0.30 25 7
shizuoka 71.2 0.29 21 3



   Numbers of municipalities Fatalities Fatalities per 10,000 population
Average Preceding year's average Year-on-year change Average Preceding year's average Year-on-year change
Cities and Tokyo metropolitan wards 768(766) cities
*Note 1
+ 23 wards
5.05 5.66 -10.9% 0.44 0.49 -10.0%
Wards of government-designated major cities 148(163) wards
*Note 1
3.99 4.58 -13.0% 0.26 0.30 -12.4%
Towns 820 towns 1.01 1.04 -2.7% 0.67 0.69 -2.2%
Villages 195 villages
*Note 2
0.44 0.53 -17.3% 0.90 1.08 -16.6%
Nationwide 1,954 municipalities
(1,967 municipalities)
2.81 3.09 -9.0% 0.43 0.48 -9.7%


- The figure in parentheses in the number of municipalities (as of the end of December, 2007) is the actual figure as of that time period.

*Note 1. The discrepancy in the number of cities and wards is because the city of Niigata,
Niigata Prefecture, became a government-designated city on April 1, 2007, creating eight administrative wards: Kita Ward, Higashi Ward, Chuo Ward, Konan Ward, Akiha Ward, Minami Ward, Nishi Ward and Nishikan Ward. Since the 2007 data preceding that time (January 1 - March 31, 2007) cannot be divided into the eight wards, data for Niigata was considered as one city for the entire 2007. From 2007 onward, data for each ward will be published.
Hamamatsu City likewise became a government-designated city on April 1, 2007, creating seven administrative wards: Naka Ward, Higashi Ward, Nishi Ward, Minami Ward, Kita Ward, Hamakita Ward, and Tenryu Ward.
Since the 2007 data preceding that time (January 1 - March 31, 2007) cannot be divided into the seven wards, data for Hamamatsu was considered as one city for the entire 2007. From 2007 onward, data for each ward will be published.

Municipalities with Large Number of Fatalities on Non-Expressways per 10,000 Population
Cities and Tokyo metropolitan wards
(768 cities + 23 wards)
Fatalities Population Fatalities per 10,000 population
Maibara city    (Shiga) 12 41,420 2.90
Muroto city    (Kochi) 4 18,086 2.21
Sasayama city    (Hyogo) 10 45,995 2.17
Akitakata city    (Hiroshima) 7 33,251 2.11
Ozu city    (Ehime) 10 51,020 1.96
* Excluding major cities

Wards of Government-designated Major Cities
(148 wards)
Fatalities Population Fatalities per 10,000 population
Atsuta Ward    (Aichi) 9 62,211 1.45
Mihara Ward    (Osaka) 4 39,118 1.02
Nishinari Ward    (Osaka) 9 112,876 0.80
Nishi Ward    (Kanagawa) 6 84,421 0.71
Shimogyo Ward     (Kyoto) 5 71,911 0.70


Towns
(820 towns)
Fatalities Population Fatalities per 10,000 population
Oshamanbe-cho    (Hokkaido) 7 6,640 10.54
Toyokoro-cho    (Hokkaido) 3 3,822 7.85
Kawamoto-cho    (Shimane) 3 4,110 7.30
Shibecha-cho    (Hokkaido) 6 8,801 6.82
Tano-cho    (Kochi) 2 3,247 6.16


Villages
(195 villages)
Fatalities Population Fatalities per 10,000 population
Kamikitayama-mura     (Nara) 1 757 13.21
Sarufutsu-mura    (Hokkaido) 3 2,899 10.35
Higashi-son    (Okinawa) 2 2,029 9.86
Ogawa-mura    (Nagano) 3 3,303 9.08
Kiyokawa-mura     (Kanagawa) 3 3,319 9.04

Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis (ITARDA)