A legal revision allowing speedier defibrillation use has resulted in a 3.36 percentage point rise in the procedure, the outline of an annual Fire and Disaster Management Agency report showed Wednesday.
The revised health ministry ordinance, which took effect in April, allows emergency medical technicians to conduct defibrillation without consulting a doctor. The white paper is to be released Friday.
The outline says that in major cities between April and September, 9,835 people suffered cardiac arrest, of whom 1,153, or 11.72 percent, received defibrillation.
Of these, 426 people, or 36.9 percent, were revived.
In the same period of 2002, 9,501 people suffered cardiac arrest, of whom 795, or 8.36 percent, received defibrillation.
Of these, 256 people, or 32.2 percent, were revived.
But of those revived this year, 45.5 percent were alive a month after the defibrillation, down from 48.43 percent the previous year, meaning the survival rate actually declined this year.
The report also expresses caution over a series of accidents at companies this year, saying the number of such accidents shows no sign of abating.
In September, a fire broke out at Bridgestone Corp.'s Tochigi factory, and at Idemitsu Kosan Co.'s oil refinery in Hokkaido.