Fatal traffic accidents involving elderly drivers are on the rise. In April, a car driven by an 87-year-old former elite government bureaucrat apparently went out of control on the road in Tokyo's Ikebukuro and hit multiple pedestrians, killing a woman and her daughter. Earlier this month, an 81-year-old man crashed his car into several vehicles at high speed at an intersection in Fukuoka, killing himself as well as his wife who was in the passenger's seat and injuring seven others.

While the number of deaths in traffic accidents last year fell to the lowest level on record since 1948, the number of fatal accidents caused by drivers 75 and older hit a record 460, accounting for 15 percent of all fatal traffic accidents. The problem needs to be addressed from multiple angles.

Many accidents caused by elderly drivers are blamed on simple errors such as pressing the accelerator instead of the brake and steering mistakes. A decline in drivers' cognitive functions, eyesight and physical abilities due to aging is deemed to contribute to such mistakes.