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sabina · Joined: 11 Nov 2010 Posts: 75

So I moved into my first Japanese apartment recently and while the apartment is very nice, I noticed that there is no smoke detector/fire alarm in the entire apartment.

Is this typical of Japan? The building I live in is a little old, but not decrepit or anything. The school (which is under the apartment) also lacks a smoke detector/fire alarm.

I don't even know if there are any Japanese laws demanding that buildings have smoke detectors.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Not sure, but if you have electric heat, neither may be required to have such detectors.

This blog says all homes should have them in all rooms.
http://thenakedlistener.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/smoke-detectors-compulsory-in-japan/

This site says there will be a law in 2011 to the effect that bedrooms and stairwells in all apartments must have them.
http://awia.jp/en/index_e.html

This guy said Tokyo Gas told him they will have to install them as of spring 2011.
http://forum.gaijinpot.com/showthread.php?94410-New-fire-regs-requiring-smoke-detectors-in-homes

From the Nagoya International Center:
http://www.nic-nagoya.or.jp/en/e/archives/420

the4th2001 · Joined: 04 Oct 2010 Posts: 130 Location: Tokyo

Essentially what Glenski said, but . . .

The rooms* you need a smoke detector in and the date you have to have them installed by depends on your prefecture/city. The absolute deadline is June, 2011.

Tried to find an official site in English, but no luck. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency only lists all of the important information in Japanese. Gotta love that, yeah?

http://www.fdma.go.jp/html/life/yobou_contents/contents/index_02.html

*split up into three categories:
1. Bedrooms and stairwells. (Most of Japan)
2. Rooms listed in 1 plus your kitchen. (basically Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Sapporo, Sendai, Chiba, Kawasaki, Yokohama, Nagoya, and other large cities)
3. Rooms listed in 1 and 2 plus all other rooms in your place. (Tokyo)

seklarwia · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 2:46 pm Post subject:

You should talk to your landlord about getting some mains powered detectors installed. Perhaps he hasn't gotten around to it yet. New places will normally have them installed already.

My Leopalace had a heat detector in the room. And my new apartment has a smoke detector in each bedroom and a heat detector in the LDK room, which I think is a decent set up because I don't want the one in the LDK room going off everytime my friends burn their latest culinary creations or decide to smoke under the extractor fan whilst I pop to the shop thinking that I won't notice Evil or Very Mad

I maybe a smoker but I despise the smell of stale smoke!

But I did view a couple of older houses up for rent in my area which didn't have any detectors. I did find that quite worrying because those homes were pretty wooden and built one on top of each other... it would only take one of the those buildings to go up in the night and most of the places along that stretch of street would be done for with possibly more than a few fatalities if, like the houses I saw, others didn't detectors.

Do you work in the school below? If so, you could VERY politely ask about their smoke detectors or lack there of. Just tell them that you are a little concerned after seeing some of the recent fatal fires in the news.