May 7, 2025
TOKYO – There are concerns that if Japan accepts vehicles designed in accordance with the safety standards of the United States, as proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, who considers Japan’s current standards to be non-tariff barriers, pedestrian safety could be compromised.
Many of Japan’s automobile safety standards were formulated based on lessons learned from past accidents and have been incorporated into global standards set by the United Nations.
“Unlike U.N. standards, which are used by Japan and European countries, pedestrian safety is not a factor in U.S. vehicle standards,” a senior official of the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry said.
Trump has particularly been keen on attacking Japan’s standard to protect the heads of pedestrians, which he has referred to on social media as Japan’s “bowling ball” test. The U.S. president claims that in Japan, a bowling ball is dropped on the hood of a car and if the hood is dented, the car fails the inspection.
However, the actual test involves hitting the car with a hemispherical device — standing in for the head of an adult or a child — at a speed of 35 kph and measuring the impact. Its aim is to ensure the hood and other parts are sufficiently yielding to protect the heads of pedestrians.
In Japan, where roads are often narrow, making it difficult for pedestrians and cars to keep distance from each other, the proportion of accidents resulting in pedestrian fatalities is high. For this reason, the transport ministry added the hemisphere test to safety standards in 2004, saying that it was “expected to reduce traffic fatalities by up to 100 per year.” Following Japan’s lead, the test was also incorporated into the U.N. vehicle standards.
In the United States, where road conditions differ from those of Japan and people on foot are more separated from traffic, such pedestrian protection standards do not exist. So Trump’s requests for Japan to loosen its safety standards seem to be based on a lack of understanding of the different conditions in the two countries.
The U.N. standards are a set of environmental and safety rules for vehicles established through discussions between government agencies, industry groups and other bodies at the United Nations World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations. The standards include 43 categories of regulations for passenger vehicles, including ones for brakes, speedometers and noise levels. Japan has adopted all of them, but the United States has only adopted three categories, such as those for metal door fittings. If an automaker obtains approval for a type of vehicle in Japan under the U.N. standards, it can obtain certification in about 60 countries that have also adopted the U.N. standards, including Britain, Germany, France, South Korea and Thailand, without undergoing similar tests.
Blind-spot accidents
There are other safety standards that do not exist in the United States.
In Japan, there is a regulation for passenger vehicles that a 1-meter tall, 30-centimeter wide round pillar — about the size of a six-year-old child — placed in front of or to the side of the vehicle must be visible from the driver’s seat. A rule added in 2003 requires that, in cases where a vehicle’s height or hood blocks direct view of the pillar, auxiliary mirrors be installed to make it visible.
The regulation was introduced in response to a series of accidents involving children being hit by cars due to being in their blind spots, at a time when sport utility vehicles were becoming highly popular. This rule, too, has been incorporated into the U.N. standards. Relaxing this regulation could lead to more accidents involving children.
Led by Japan, the installation of automatic braking systems, which detect pedestrians and vehicles in the car’s path and act to mitigate collision damage, was also adopted as part of U.N. safety standards. Japan took the initiative on creating this rule following a series of accidents, including one that killed or injured 11 people in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district in April 2019.
“Japan’s safety standards reflect a history of not just letting these tragic accidents be for nothing, but improving the safety of pedestrians step by step in line with road conditions,” said Juri Ozawa, head of an association of bereaved families of traffic-accident victims. “We hope the government will not compromise on the safety and security of its own citizens,” added Ozawa.
Rollover safety
There is one category of vehicle safety regulation that exists in the United States but is not part of Japanese and global standards: measures to protect passengers when a vehicle turns over. In Japan, it is rare for cars to veer off the road and roll over, as high-strength guardrails are installed on expressways. Thus measures against rollovers are not included in the country’s vehicle safety standards.
On the other hand, many highways in the United States, especially in rural regions, lack guardrails, so it is not uncommon for vehicles to veer off of roads and roll over. Therefore, to protect drivers and passengers, tests to verify the impact resistance of vehicle roofs have been introduced.
When exporting Japanese vehicles to the United States, automakers must pass tests in accordance with U.S. standards.
Experts point out that if Japan gives preferential treatment to the United States on safety measures, China, which also has a unique set of standards, may demand the same treatment.