On June 9, 2022, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) updated the "guidelines for facilitating smooth transportation on roads."

The guidelines are formulated for those in charge of road projects to help them utilize the Standards to Facilitate Smooth Transportation on Roads to create road spaces that incorporate universal design.

In March 2022, the MLIT published the revised guidelines but hastily updated them in response to the death of a visually impaired woman in Nara Prefecture. Last April, she was hit by a train at a railroad crossing. This time the MLIT updated the guideline after listening to the opinions of visually impaired groups and academic experts.

The updated parts are as follows:

• These guidelines specifically provide the following improvements to the guidance of visually impaired persons at railroad crossings.

1. Installing tactile guiding blocks for the visually impaired just in front of railway crossings is a strongly required improvement.
2. Installing in-crossings with tactile surfaces as guiding signs so that the visually impaired are not mistaken as being outside the crossing is a further desirable improvement.

• The diagram of tactile guiding blocks and related information were added to the guidelines.
• A case study of Yamato Koriyama City, Nara Prefecture, was added to the guidelines.

For more information, please visit the website below.
https://www.mlit.go.jp/report/press/road01_hh_001563.html