Japan to discuss expanding child safety seat requirements

The panel will discuss whether children aged 6 or older, who are not currently subject to mandatory child safety seat requirements under the road traffic law, should also be required to use such seats.

It is expected to submit recommendations by the end of this year, based on which the NPA will consider revising the law.

Panel members will include a university professor specializing in automotive engineering, a pediatrician and representatives of the automotive industry. They are expected to discuss issues such as the height threshold for child safety seat use and age-based guidelines.

Automobile seat belts are generally designed for people who are about 150 centimeters tall or taller. When smaller children use seat belts without child safety seats, the belts may not fit properly across the chest and hips, increasing the risk of serious injuries because they can cut into the neck or abdomen in a crash.

In 2024, a local bus collided with a minivehicle in the southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka, killing two girls aged 7 and 5 who were riding in the minivehicle. Neither child was using a child safety seat, and compression of the abdomen by seat belts contributed to their deaths.

The Japan Automobile Federation, or JAF, and automakers recommend continued use of child seats or booster seats as children grow.

Following the Fukuoka accident, the recommended height threshold for the use of child seats and booster seats was revised from under 140 centimeters to under 150 centimeters.

The NPA has urged parents and guardians to use seats appropriate for a child's size, but has also been considering further measures amid calls for stricter regulations.

According to the NPA's analysis of traffic accidents involving young children between 2021 and 2025, the fatality rate for such children who used child safety seats properly was one-fifth that of those who were not using them.

In 2025, a total of 4,190 children aged between 6 and 13 were killed or injured in traffic accidents nationwide. The agency believes that making the use of child safety seats mandatory for older children could help reduce casualties.