Japan tightens sewer pipe regulations after fatal Saitama sinkhole incident

Tokyo (ANTARA) - Japan’s parliament on Wednesday enacted legislation to tighten inspections and management of old drainage pipes, following a deadly sinkhole incident in Saitama Prefecture in 2025.

Under the revised Sewerage Act and other related laws, Japan will introduce new safety standards for pipes based on their degree of corrosion and damage.

Local governments in Japan will be required to publish the results of safety inspections as well as the countermeasures taken.

The legislation will come into force within six months of its promulgation.

The review was carried out after a corroded drainage pipe caused a giant hole in Yashio, near Tokyo, in January 2025, killing a truck driver who was sucked into it.

The new law requires safety inspections to be increased in frequency from at least once every five years to once every three years.

Inspections must be carried out at locations at high risk of corrosion caused by hydrogen sulphide, a highly toxic, colourless gas.

Prefectural governments will also be permitted to repair drainage pipes on behalf of the municipal governments that manage them.

Meanwhile, municipal governments will be encouraged to prepare multiple drainage routes to waste treatment facilities, in anticipation of one route failing due to a disaster.

Source: Kyodo