Japan Amends Law to Prevent Fire Spread in Crowded Areas

June 20, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Diet enacted on Wednesday an amendment bill to the building standards law partly designed to promote construction of houses with high fire-resistance performance in densely populated areas.

The bill was approved at a plenary meeting of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, by a majority vote with support mainly from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito.

The House of Councillors, the upper chamber, passed the bill in April.

The revised law calls for relaxing the building-to-land ratio when tall buildings with high fire-resistance performance are constructed in areas designated by municipalities, aiming to prevent the spread of fire in areas crowded with buildings in the event of a disaster by promoting rebuilding of old wooden houses.

The bill was introduced in response chiefly to a major fire that devastated a commercial district in Itoigawa, Niigata Prefecture, central Japan, in December 2016.

The revised law, which will be fully put into effect by June next year, is also intended to promote utilization of the increasing number of vacant houses in Japan.

When single-family houses each with the total floor space of less than 200 square meters are converted into welfare facilities and inns, they do not have to have fireproof walls and pillars on condition that fire alarms are installed.

The law also features a special exception allowing such temporary facilities as tents and viewing stands to be set up for longer than the current limit of one year to prepare for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. Jiji Press