(1) Reasons for Proposal

A. In response to a growing need for investments to improve railroad facilities and address the aging of rolling stock, a duty to publicly announce the safety budget was introduced to encourage investments by railroad operators. A quality evaluation system was also introduced to assess the voluntary safety management of railroad operators, and this Amendment prescribes matters necessary for the enforcement of these measures.

B. It has become compulsory to assign operation managers and operational safety managers, which has created an emerging need to prescribe the corresponding obligations and other matters necessary for enforcement in the Enforcement Rule.

C. The Railroad Safety Act was amended to prescribe the establishment of a railroad security information system to ensure the systematic execution of railroad security and public safety affairs, and prescribe grounds to use work appratus required by the railroad police to perform security searches and public safety duties. Accordingly, this Amendment prescribes matters delegated by the Act and matters necessary for the enforcement thereof.

D. The Amendment addresses and improves upon a number of weaknesses that have emerged from the operation of the current system.

(2) Major Provisions

A. Modify a number of terms to address operational weaknesses concerning the initial approval of safety management systems (Article 2, paragraph 1, subparagraph 5, item C; Article 2, paragraph 1, subparagraph 6; Article 2, paragraph 3)

B. Prescribe investment criteria, compulsory matters, dates, and other details necessary for the enforcement of disclosures on railroad safety investments (Article 8)

C. Prescribe the target, evaluation items, dates, disclosure, and other matters necessary for the enforcement of the safety management quality evaluation system, and prescribe that top-performing operators shall be designated as outstanding operators and may be provided with support (Article 9, Article 9-2, Article 9-3)

D. Decrease the driver aptitude testing period from the current 10 years to 5 years (Article 41)

E. Prescribe obligations necessary for the enforcement of the compulsory assignment of operation managers and operational safety managers (Article 76-7, Article 76-7)

F. Modify cited provisions to reflect changes to the order of certain provisions (Article 76-8)

G. Address weaknesses in the security search method and procedure, and amend the types of search equipment and usage criteria to match the amendments to the Railroad Safety Act (Article 85-2, Article 85-3)

H. Prescribe the scope of information necessary for the establishment and operation of a railroad security information system, and prescribe matters necessary for the method of information checking, etc. (Article 85-4)

I. Prescribe usage criteria according to the characteristics of each type of duty equipment including gas sprays and electroshock weapons and, where necessary, restrict to the minimum scope (Article 85-5)

J. Address incompleteness by prescribing in the Enforcement Rule regulations on fees as delegated by the Act (Article 94, paragraph 1)