Three government agencies on Thursday urged industries, and company chiefs in particular, to do more to prevent plant fires and other accidents of the kind that occurred in a string this year, government officials said.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry handed an interim report with that message to representatives of the Japan Petrochemical Industry Association, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation, the Petroleum Association of Japan and the Japan Automobile Tire Manufacturers Association.
The report, compiled by a joint accident task force of the three agencies, stresses the role company heads must play to secure sufficient staff and funding resources to prevent accidents at their plants and offices.
It also urges managers to thoroughly ground workers and their supervisors on safety in the workplace.
The agencies compiled the requests during the second meeting of the joint task force. The task force was set up following a string of serious accidents, including fires at Bridgestone Corp.'s Tochigi factory and at oil tanks of Idemitsu Kosan Co. in Hokkaido.
The labor ministry said 1,225 people died in workplace accidents or from work-related diseases between January and October, up from 1,211 in the corresponding period last year. Of them, 35 died in fires or explosions, up from eight.