TOKYO: Japan has begun conducting cognitive function tests for elderly people who wish to renew their driver's licences, in a bid to determine those at risk for dementia and to curb the rise of serious traffic accidents.
Although it is expected that the revision will encourage elderly people suspected of dementia to forfeit their licences, resulting in fewer serious accidents, municipalities must also devise ways to address the needs of elderly people who rely on cars due to limited availability of other transport.
In recent years, there has been a spike in the number of accidents caused by elderly drivers in Japan, which has one of the highest proportions of elderly people in the world.
A man in his 80s driving a light truck ploughed his vehicle into a group of elementary school students, killing a first-grade student and injuring six others in Yokohama last October.
The revised law, which took effect on March 12, has made a tougher dementia test mandatory for people aged 75 or older when they renew their driver's licence every three years.
The number of licence holders in subject to tougher mandatory tests has nearly doubled from around 2.58 million in 2006 to 5.13 million in 2016, according to the National Police Agency. This over-75 group is expected to soar as the postwar baby boomers join them around 2025.
Medical checkups will be mandatory if drivers aged 75 or older are suspected of dementia in the cognitive test when they renew their licences. Those diagnosed with dementia will subsequently have their licences revoked or suspended.
Compulsory testing every three years had already been required before the latest revision to the law, but even those who were suspected of suffering from dementia did not need to see a doctor unless they violated certain traffic regulations, such as driving backwards or through a red light.
So there was a risk of a person causing a serious accident, if their symptoms worsened over the three years.
Overall, fatal traffic accidents in Japan totalled about 3,400 last year, down from about 6,100 in 2005. But those caused by drivers aged 75 or older have remained flat at more than 400 each year over the same period.
Last year, a total of 459 fatal traffic accidents were caused by such aged drivers, accounting for around 10% of the total. Of the 459 cases, 31 broke designated traffic rules prior to their accidents, which might have been prevented by mandatory dementia testing.
The law revision is expected to increase the number of drivers who have to see a doctor for a dementia check from 4,027 in 2015 to around 50,000 a year, of which 15,000 are expected to have their driver's licences revoked or suspended, up from 1,472 in the same year, according to the National Police Agency.
In the rapidly ageing society, the number of drivers who voluntarily returned their licences jumped from 19,025 in 2005 to 345,313 in 2016, according to the agency.
In the Nishimera village in Miyazaki Prefecture in southwestern Japan, people aged 65 or older account for 40% of all residents, many of whom drive a car to go to fields or the hospital.
The municipality offers a taxi coupon worth 144,000 yen as a one-time benefit to those who voluntarily return their driver's licences, aiming to "facilitate them in getting used to life without a car", a municipality official said.
In much of Japan's countryside, however, the revised law may deprive the elderly of convenient daily transport.
Hiroshi Shinoda, 75, who routinely drives in Kuroshio, in Kochi Prefecture, said that despite the inconvenience he understands the importance of the enhanced screening to prevent the elderly from causing serious traffic accidents.
"It's inevitable that we have tougher medical tests to prevent severe damage," but added that "a car is essential for daily life in a mountainous village where buses run only once a day. The elderly would not be able to function in their daily lives without substitute means such as taxi-sharing."