Swedish traffic safety solutions supplier Sensys Traffic has won a SKr12m ($1.4m) contract from Japanese telecommunications and information technology (IT) firm OKI to develop a speed warning safety system specifically for the Japanese market.

The Japanese firm has an international presence within the fields of business systems and services, telecom systems, social infrastructure, mechatronics, printers and electronic manufacturing services.

The project will be Sensys’ first involvement in Japan, a country with 127 million inhabitants and 4,100 traffic fatalities a year, with vulnerable road users forming a significant part of the annual traffic fatalities.

"This is a strategic breakthrough for us in Japan."

Japan currently has an older type of speed camera enforcement systems equipped on its highways, and the country’s police are also using several different types of mobile speed enforcement systems.

The Japanese police have recently given priority to traffic safety measures for vulnerable road users, with a focus on schoolchildren, as they are particularly exposed in the dense traffic environments found in Japan’s cities and urban areas.

In order to help combat this problem, Sensys was given a contract to develop a special speed warning safety system with a smaller size that will blend into the Japanese city environment.

Sensys CEO Torbjörn Sandberg said: "This is a strategic breakthrough for us in Japan. Considering the similarities between Japan and Sweden when it comes to the traffic safety culture, and considering that Japan is 13 times larger than Sweden in terms of population with the sixth largest road network in the world, we see a significant potential in the Japanese market."