Overview
- The revised automobile driving punishment law was passed unanimously by the Diet on Thursday, June 25, 2026, and introduces numeric criteria for dangerous driving that will guide prosecutions.
- For speed, the law treats exceeding the posted limit by 50 km/h on roads with limits of 60 km/h or less and by 60 km/h on roads over 60 km/h as, in principle, meeting the dangerous-driving standard when a death or injury occurs.
- For alcohol, the statute sets a breath-alcohol threshold of 0.5 mg per liter (blood alcohol about 1.0 mg/mL) as a clear trigger for dangerous-driving charges, a level that can be reached after about two large beers for many adults.
- The revision also names intentional tire-sliding or drift driving as dangerous driving and preserves prosecutorial discretion to charge the offense even when conduct falls below the numeric cutoffs if speed or alcohol made avoiding serious danger or normal driving clearly difficult.
- The law will be promulgated within days and come into force 20 days later, likely in July, and it is expected to change police and prosecutor practice while leaving existing appeals and pending cases such as the 2021 Oita incident to be resolved under prior rules.