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– Japan will require owners to register their drones with the government as it seeks to quickly identify them in case of accidents, land ministry officials said Monday.
Minapim by Hernan Valenzuela: Under the envisioned registration system, drone owners must file online their name and address, as well as details, such as the manufacturer, model and weight, and submit personal identification documents, according to the officials. They will then receive a registration number that should be attached to the drone.
The country’s aviation law, revised in 2015, bans drone flights in densely populated areas, areas around airports and a zone 150 meters or more from the ground without state approval. Small drones weighing less than 200 grams, often sold as children’s toys and for hobbies, are not subjected to the law.
Drones have been gaining popularity in recent years as a device for taking images and measurements and spraying agricultural chemicals on farmlands, among other tasks. But the widespread use has also led to more accidents, with the ministry receiving reports of 79 incidents in fiscal 2018 ended in March.
Earlier this year, a drone-like object was spotted at Kansai international airport at least three times, prompting the closure of a runway and affecting more than 100 flights in total. The ministry will also seek system that can detect unauthorized flying around airports more quickly, the officials added.
Incident Increase
Increased drone incidents including areas restricted to commercial or national security flights. Recently a man from Hiroshima was arrested for drone flight above the base of the Maritime Self-Defense Force – MSDF.
The 50-year-old resident of Kumano City is suspected of piloting the approximately 150-gram drone over the MSDF facility around 4:35 pm. on September 21 this year. According to prefectural police, the man is the first person to be arrested under Japan’s drone restriction law in 2016, which prohibits devices weighing less than 200 grams from approaching specific major facilities.
Case documents state that the drone was found by a regional HQ official. According to the investigators, there was an SD card inside containing aerial images of the MSDF base.
“I knew it was forbidden to fly there, but I did it for practice,” the suspect told police.
Japan’s drone restriction law is separate from the provisions of the Civil Aviation Act governing unmanned aircraft and even covers vessels weighing less than 200 grams. In addition, legal reviews that took effect in June this year designated airspace above defense facilities as off limits, according to police.
A similar case ten days earlier had a major impact on Kansai International Airport, a drone-like flying object disrupted operations at the airport on November 8, 2019. Operations at Kansai International Airport were halted twice due to what appeared to be a drone-like flying object near the airport, the airport operator said.
The operator suspended the use of the tracks for about an hour at about 10:15 pm. Shortly after operations began, another report of a drone-like flying object led to a second interruption around 11:30 pm.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the airport operator, crew members on board aircraft that landed at Kansai International reported seeing the drone-like object in the sky. Drone flights are prohibited near the airport. Airport operations were also interrupted by a drone-like object on the night of October 19.
Source: Mainichi Japanese original by Akihiro Nakajima, Hiroshima
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