[/FLOATL]60% of karaoke venues across nation flouting fire-safety rules
Gomiuri Shimburn: About 60 percent of 921 karaoke venues across the nation violate the Fire Service Law, according to inspections by the Tokyo Fire Department and fire departments in 46 prefectural capitals and three ordinance-designated cities, which took place in response to a recent fire at a karaoke venue in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, that killed three teenagers and injured five others.
According to the continuing inspections that are targeting about 2,100 karaoke venues, 557 do not meet legal standards.
Of these venues, 238 do not have fire-prevention managers. Fire drills have not been conducted at 178 venues. At 104 venues, fire extinguishers have run short or are past their expiration date, while 60 venues have not installed automatic fire alarms or emergency bells. And 38 karaoke businesses are not equipped with evacuation lights or their evacuation lights were found to be out of order.
Some venues were found to have left items on staircases or in hallways that could hamper evacuation and have not submitted reports on inspections of their equipment as required by law.
In Shizuoka and Takamatsu, all of the venues inspected by fire departments were found to have violated the law, while more than 80 percent of the targeted venues in 11 cities including Yokohama, Chiba and Sakai in Osaka Prefecture were not in compliance with the law, the fire departments said.
The inspections by the fire departments are to be finished by mid-February.
As of March, there were about 9,800 karaoke venues in the nation, according to the All-Japan Karaoke Industrialist Association. The number has decreased since 1996. However, the number of rooms per venue has increased by 30 percent in the past decade.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070129TDY02008.htm
