The infrastructure ministry will form a task force to look at ways to prevent structure-related accidents, such as the revolving-door fatality in March at the Roppongi Hills complex in Tokyo, officials said Tuesday.
The body proposed by the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry will handle cases in which people have been injured by revolving doors, elevators and automatic fire doors, with a program to quickly collect information on the incidents, the ministry officials said.
The new task force's role will be similar to that of the ministry's Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission, they said.
In the March accident, a 6-year-old boy died after his head was crushed by an automatic revolving door at the Roppongi Hills business and entertainment complex, which opened last year. The accident led to the shutdown of most revolving doors in Japan.
The ministry decided to set up the task force after the accident exposed shortcomings in its ability to gather information and prevent accidents. Prior to the March incident, there had been hundreds of reports of nonfatal accidents involving automatic revolving doors.