The National Police Agency chose "Striving for the World's Safest Road Traffic" as the main theme of its 2005 white paper made public recently. This is the first time in about a quarter-century that traffic safety has been the main feature of the annual report, thus denoting the agency's enthusiasm for the topic.
The worst year for traffic safety in Japan was 1970 when 16,765 people died in road accidents. Although the annual number of traffic deaths subsequently showed a declining trend, they topped 10,000 in 1988. In the past 10 years or so, annual traffic deaths have been less than 10,000.
Since 2001, the number has continued to decrease every year, dropping to 7,358 deaths in 2004. Although this number is less than half the 1970 peak, it still means that about 20 people are dying tragic deaths every day in road accidents.