Toshinori Wada: 150 Years of Railways and Criminal Law Safety

When discussing railway safety, focus is usually placed on vehicle technology and operating systems to prevent serious accidents, but here I would like to focus on criminal law safety.

What is criminal law safety? It refers to the protection afforded by the provision of penalties for dangerous acts. When acts that endanger railways are widely subject to punishment, or are heavily punished and legally deterred, the railway is evaluated as being "safe under criminal law."

Looking at Japan's railways from this perspective, it can be said that the past 150 years have been a period of continuously increasing criminal law safety in stages. In other words, the punishment for acts that endanger railways has become heavier over time, and the scope of punishment has continued to expand.

At the time of the railway's opening in 1872 (Meiji 5), there was no modern penal code yet, but the "Railway Crime Penalties" were established as a special law to address dangerous acts. However, the acts subject to punishment there included things like passengers with infectious diseases boarding, and acts that harmed the safety of train operations were not yet the focus. It is said that because steam locomotives were shunned by residents along the lines as a source of danger due to the image of them scattering sparks, the first railway was built on an embankment slightly away from the coast. If that is the case, the railway itself was a dangerous existence to begin with, and the adversarial relationship between an "inherently safe railway" and "dangerous criminal acts that harm it" likely only appeared after the railway gained a certain level of social trust after its opening.

In 1880 (Meiji 13), the first modern penal code was enacted. It contained provisions punishing acts that created danger for railway traffic. Setting up dangerous obstacles to train traffic was punishable by major imprisonment (equivalent to up to 5 years of imprisonment today), overturning a train as a result led to life imprisonment (life imprisonment in Shimaji [= Hokkaido]), and if someone died as a result, the death penalty was applied. Since the act of placing obstacles on the rails became suppressed by a 5-year prison sentence, the criminal law safety of railways increased significantly through this.

Subsequently, the current Penal Code was created in 1907 (Meiji 40). The aforementioned provisions of the 1880 Penal Code were basically carried over, and acts such as placing obstacles on the rails are punished as the crime of endangering traffic, but the upper limit of imprisonment was raised to 15 years. Since it had been 5 years until then, the penalties were made significantly heavier, further enhancing criminal law safety. Furthermore, in 2004 (Heisei 16), along with several other crimes, the upper limit for the crime of endangering traffic was raised to 20 years, which remains the case today.

Now, turning our eyes from heavy punishment to broad punishment, criminal law safety is also on an expanding trend there.

The Railway Business Act, enacted in 1900 (Meiji 33) and still in effect today, punishes the act of throwing "tiles and stones" at trains. Although it does not carry the same danger as placing obstacles on the rails, throwing hard objects with a certain weight like stones carries the risk of obstructing train operations, so it is subject to criminal punishment. Through this, the criminal law safety of railways is protected more broadly than the aforementioned crime of endangering traffic.

The scope of this protection was expanded by the Act on Special Measures Concerning the Punishment of Acts that Hinder the Safety of Train Operation on Shinkansen Railways (Shinkansen Special Measures Act). This law, enacted in conjunction with the opening of the Tokaido Shinkansen in 1964 (Showa 39), made the act of throwing "objects" at a moving Shinkansen subject to punishment. In other words, for moving Shinkansen, the items thrown were not limited to "tiles and stones," ensuring criminal law safety more broadly. The law also punishes the act of placing objects within 3 meters of the center line of a Shinkansen track, which can also be said to expand criminal law safety.

The Shinkansen Special Measures Act applies to what the Nationwide Shinkansen Railway Development Act defines as Shinkansen railways, and the specific sections are determined by cabinet order. The so-called Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen, which opened in September this year, is described in this cabinet order as "the section connecting Takeo City and Nagasaki City among the Shinkansen railways connecting Fukuoka City and Nagasaki City," and has been subject to the Shinkansen Special Measures Act since its opening day.

What draws attention in future developments is the handling of the Chuo Shinkansen (Maglev), for which criminal law safety is likely to be even more required. First, will the geographical scope where placing objects is punished be wider than that of conventional Shinkansen? Second, will the conditions under which throwing objects is punished be more lenient than for conventional Shinkansen? Third, in cases where danger to traffic is created by placing obstacles on the tracks, the lower limit of the sentence for the crime of endangering traffic under the Penal Code is 2 years of imprisonment; will this be applied as is, or will it be raised? Since the Maglev Shinkansen proceeds by floating with magnetic force, it is half like an airplane. And under current law, acts that create danger to aviation are punished by the Act on Punishment of Acts to Endanger Aviation with imprisonment of 3 years or more, rather than 2 years.

In the next 150 years, I hope that sufficient criminal law safety will be ensured for railways that "take flight."