Govt to Broaden Definitions of Dangerous Driving for Speeding, Concentration of Alcohol in Effort to Toughen Law

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:37 JST, December 10, 2025

The Legislative Council, an advisory entity for the justice minister, proposed toughening punishments for acts of dangerous driving causing death or injury at its meeting on Tuesday, indicating numerical criteria about vehicle speeds and alcohol concentration of alleged drivers.

Under the council’s revision plan, if a driver causes an accident resulting in death or injury while driving at speeds exceeding 50 kph or more on roads where the speed limit is up to 60 kph, and exceeding 60 kph on roads where the speed limit is over 60 kph, a charge of dangerous driving will be imposed in a uniform manner.

Regarding drunk driving, the dangerous driving charge will be imposed if the alcohol concentration in a driver’s breath exceeds 0.5 milligrams per liter of exhalation. The figure is equivalent to a condition that a person has drunk two to three large bottles of beer.

At the council’s subpanel meeting in September, it proposed two each of plans regarding the speeds and concentration of alcohol. The Justice Ministry, which serves as the secretariat of the council, then narrowed them down to one each.

The council’s subpanel will conclude by the end of this month discussions based on the revised plan, and the ministry will submit a bill to revise the Law on Punishment of Acts Inflicting Death or Injury on Others by Driving a Motor Vehicle, Etc. during next year’s ordinary Diet session.

According to the numerical criteria provided in the revision plan, if a person drives a car at over 110 kph on a road where the speed limit is up to 60 kph, and if the speed is over 160 kph on an expressway where the speed limit is 100 kph, the charge of dangerous driving will be imposed.

The numerical criteria of alcohol concentration were calculated as figures at which a driver’s ability to focus attention and vigilance worsen, based on such data as those of the World Health Organization.

To make it possible to impose the charge even if vehicle speeds are lower than the criteria, the revision plan proposes to add a new stipulation that acts of dangerous driving will include cases in which it is “extremely difficult to avoid serious danger in traffic” for a driver.

Regarding the alcohol concentration for the same purpose, the law’s current definition as “an act of driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol … making it difficult for the person to drive normally” will be maintained.

Drift driving, in which a driver intentionally slides a car’s tires, will also be punished under the law.

The maximum legal punishment on dangerous driving causing death or injury is 20 years of imprisonment. The punishment is imposed on such cases as that a driver caused an accident as a result of “an act of driving at such high speed that it is exceedingly difficult to control the motor vehicle.”

Currently, definitions for imposing charges of dangerous driving are ambiguous. Thus, there have been many cases in which drivers faced only a charge of negligent driving resulting death or injury, the maximum punishment for which is seven years of imprisonment, even if they drove at speeds largely exceeding the speed limits.