Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has opened a public comment period on tightening the seatbelt language cabin crews must give to passengers on aircraft with more than 30 seats. The revised guideline would require crew to instruct passengers to wear seatbelts low on the hips and pulled tight, adjusted to body type, replacing the current general reminder to buckle up. It would also make explicit that seatbelts must stay fastened at all times while seated, not only when a turbulence warning is issued, and require crew to brief passengers on how to avoid injury from sudden turbulence when they are away from their seats.
The proposal follows a string of turbulence injuries to passengers and crew in Japan since 2022, including a January 16, 2022 accident investigated by the Japan Transport Safety Board, and a fatal overseas turbulence encounter in May 2024 that killed one passenger and injured many others. MLIT's Civil Aviation Bureau, through its Aviation Safety Promotion Office, is running the consultation under Article 104, Paragraph 1 of the Aviation Act. The draft also cites a comparable US regulation, FAR 121.311(b), as a reference point for the always-fastened standard.
Comments are open from July 8 to August 7, 2026, submitted in Japanese through the e-Gov portal, by email to the Aviation Safety Promotion Office, or by post to the bureau's Tokyo office.
The guideline remains a draft. Airlines are not yet required to change their announcements, and MLIT has not set a date for finalizing or enforcing the new wording.