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On May 21, 2019, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended a Ministerial Council on Traffic Safety Policy in Response to Recent Traffic Accidents, at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,
 
“There has been a spate of traffic accidents caused by elderly drivers, especially those resulting in the death of children, such as the fatal traffic accident involving a parent and child caused by an out-of-control passenger vehicle in Toshima City on April 19, and the fatal traffic accident involving kindergarten children that occurred in Otsu City on May 8. I express my sincere condolences for those who lost their lives, and my deepest sympathies to the bereaved families. I also pray for the early recovery of those who have been injured.
 
To date, the Government has been promoting measures related to elderly drivers, including the implementation of the amended Road Traffic Act, which strengthens measures related to dementia. Despite these efforts, such tragic accidents still occur. Hence, I ask you to take even stronger steps to promote measures to support safe driving by the elderly as well as those aspects of their daily lives involving mobility, taking into consideration the development of new technologies. In addition, I ask you to compile measures to ensure the safety of the routes that groups of children, in particular preschoolers, use daily so that society as a whole protects the precious lives of our children, who will bear our future. I ask everyone, in particular Minister Miyakoshi, to make concerted efforts to deal with this pressing issue.”