Japan's National Police Agency will convene an expert panel starting in July to review driving skill tests for drivers aged 75 and older with prior violations [1].
This move follows data suggesting that current mandatory skill tests during license renewals are not effectively preventing accidents among high-risk elderly drivers. If the current system fails to identify cognitive or physical decline, thousands of drivers may remain on the road despite a high propensity for collisions.
The agency based its decision on a two-year follow-up study of approximately 5,300 drivers [1] who passed the skill tests between May 15 and Aug. 31, 2023 [1]. The results showed that these drivers had an accident rate approximately 2.8 times higher than their peers without violation histories [1]. Additionally, their violation rate was approximately 1.9 times higher [1].
Specific data from the study highlighted critical safety failures. There were 1,575 accidents per 100,000 people [1]. Among the causes of these accidents, 48 cases were attributed to a failure to ensure safety, and 22 cases were caused by a failure to look ahead [1].
The current testing regime, which has been in place for those with violation histories since May 2022 [1], faces a significant scale of implementation. In 2025, 165,756 people were scheduled for testing [2], and 156,513 actually underwent the examination [2]. It is estimated that 145,935 of those individuals passed [2].
The National Police Agency said the expert panel will begin meetings in July and is expected to compile a final report by August [1]. The panel will determine if the test criteria are too lenient, or if the nature of the tests fails to simulate real-world hazards that lead to accidents.
This review comes amid ongoing concerns regarding elderly road safety. In the previous year, there were 397 fatal accidents involving drivers aged 75 and older [3].
“drivers had an accident rate approximately 2.8 times higher than their peers without violation histories”
The shift toward reviewing these tests indicates that Japan is moving away from a 'pass/fail' formality and toward a more rigorous, data-driven approach to elderly licensing. By focusing on the gap between test performance and real-world accident rates, the government is acknowledging that traditional skill tests may not capture the specific cognitive lapses—such as failure to ensure safety—that lead to fatal crashes in an aging population.
