Lithium Battery Fires Surge in Japan
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Power Banks the Main Cause
Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency has compiled nationwide cases of fires caused by lithium batteries or products containing them during the period between January 2022 and June 2025. The results show that the number of such fires has been increasing in recent years, with 852 cases in 2022, 910 in 2023, and 1,162 in 2024. According to the data available at present for 2025, there were 665 cases in the first half of the year alone (January to June). Approximately 20% of the fires occurred in garbage collection trucks that had gathered discarded lithium batteries or in waste treatment facilities.
The breakdown of fires related to lithium batteries by product type between January and June 2025, excluding fires caused by discarded batteries, shows that 194 fires, or 35% of the total, were caused by power banks, far surpassing the next most frequent cause, mobile phones, which were involved in 39 fires or 7% of the total. Other types of products that caught fire included familiar household and consumer items such as electric power tools, e-bikes, cordless vacuum cleaners, and wireless earphones.
Investigations of fires caused by the combustion of power banks found that the leading causes were external impact (9%), use or storage at high temperatures (6%), product defects (3%), and improper charging methods (3%). However, in 53% of the cases the exact cause was undetermined.
For power tools and cordless vacuum cleaners, cases of combustion involving third-party batteries were relatively common. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency stressed the importance of “purchasing safe products, using them properly, and disposing of them appropriately.”
Data Sources
- Data on fires caused by lithium batteries (Japanese) by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: A power bank catches fire during an experiment to recreate a product combustion; courtesy of the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation. © Jiji.)