Electrical Fatality Rate and Epidemiology of Electrocution in Japan, 2012–2014

Recent accidental fatal electrocutions in Japan show a plateau trend, although overall, the trend is decreasing. There were 15 fatal electrical accidents in 2012, five in 2013, and 15 in 2014. The total number of electrical fatalities in Japan will exceed 8,000 in 1959–2040. Thus, it is necessary to consider certain further preventive measures to save the valuable lives of workers. However, the thorough prevention of accidental fatal electric shocks is not a trivial matter. The main reason is that there are 60 million workers in all industries, including 15 million in the construction and manufacturing industries. The construction and electrical construction industries account for approximately 60% of the fatal electrical accidents in all industries. Similar fatal electrical accidents occur every year. Thus, there is a large number of workers, and designing thorough preventive measures is not easy. Therefore, a new approach for measures to prevent fatal electrical accidents is required. In this study, a detailed analysis of recent fatal electrical accidents is performed, considering case studies from 2012 to 2014. The goal of this study is to save the valuable lives of workers by preventing fatal electrical fatal accidents.