Ever since the new scooter law came into effect, electric scooters are now under the same category as “bikes” right?
Well, I purchased a new e-scooter for my wife for her as her early gift birthday. We’ve been using it all over the city and have had no problems.
It’s actually her birthday, and so we decided to go eat somewhere after we both get off work at around 8pm. We headed to the restaurant, her on her e-scooter and me on my e-bike.
We were 10 minutes from the restaurant when we got pulled over by 3 police officers on their bikes. First time getting pulled over. (We weren’t speeding, going around 10km/hour on a cleared sidewalk.) At first they pulled us over because they saw that my wife was on her e-scooter and it didn’t have a license plate. Then they saw that I was actually riding in an e-bike. My bike actually looks like a regular bike, the battery is completely hidden, and it has peddle.
They seem un-clear about the new e-scooter laws and after we showed them the new rule change, they focused their attention on my e-bike. Yes, that is a problem, I broke 3 violations, not having a back mirror and plate and not wearing a helmet. Luckily, I have a Japanese driver license so they couldn’t do much else. They said they were going to write me a ticket but asked us to stay while they called back to their main office.
The funny part was during the wait
Multiple people were breaking the law in front of them, including multiple double bike riders and loud motorcycle speed on the street.
Anyways, after they did some more investigation, they were asked to take our vehicles back to the police station to inspect them.
We are now at the police station. I thought they were going to just write me a ticket and call it a day. Instead, they really focused on my wife’s e-scooter all of a sudden.
A bunch of police officers looked at the scooter and poked around acting like a bunch of apes discovering the wheel for the first time. After a bunch of poking and photo taking. They deemed that the e-scooter doesn’t have the “official seal.” Therefore, it’s considered an electronic vehicle which requires a DRIVER license to operate. They took my wife to the back and is now writing a report on her and charging her with driving without a DRIVER license.
It’s now 12:25 AM, and she still in the back. They keep telling her that her crime is “serious.” Of course, we started looking around at all laws online ourselves.
Apparently, they showed her in their book that e-scooters need to have some sort of seal in order to be in that “bike” category. However, no where on any site (even on their official site) online did it state that there needs that seal. The only thing we found online was that the e-scooter must have 2 speeds and go from between 6km and 20km. My wife’s e-bike 2 different speeds and has a lock and can force the bike to stay under 15 km/h.
***Correction, someone in this post provided the information. Thank you! It doesn’t excuse them not being able to provide it when we were there. In fact they couldn’t find it themselves when they were searching for it, when my wife asked, they tried to look it up and then quickly jump subjects when they couldn’t find it.***
Without strong evidence or knowledge of the law, they then start pointing at the amazon description of her e-scooter. Under one of the descriptions in english it says “not legal on public road.”
So they keep harping her on that eventhough I believe the ad is trying to tell people not to take this thing onto the road (ie, streets and highways.) The ad’s description is also not offical law if it not made clear on any offical website.
After some back and forth protest, they are just going to write her a ticket (even though they made it seem like such a HUGE deal earlier.)
We then started asking them about the official seal: No answer
So, how do we know if we are buying an e-scooter online that has the seal:
No answer.
Where does it say anything about the seal online?
Checked, couldn’t find, no answer.
So now we are in the police car again as they drive us back home since it’s almost 1am.
So, for those of you who are planning to buy an e-scooter. Don’t be unlucky like us.
We were biking in a Vietnamese populated area, and they thought I was Vietnamese when they first pulled us over. However, their tone changed very quickly after they found out I was Canadian.
I was fined 5,000 yen and my wife’s fine is still unknown.
Will keep you updated if anything else happens. (Writing this in the back of the police car).
Update, they just spent another 45 minutes outside our house being the 3 stooges, inspecting the e-scooter over and over again. They were having trouble getting the serial number (even though they got the serial number back at the police station). After all that was said and done, they handed my wife a ticket for 0 yen even though they integrated her for over 2 hours for “driving without a drivers license.” They wasted our whole night, locked my wife in the back for 2 hours, said they were going to integrate me to (but didn’t). All for a simple warning for her? What the bloody heck?
4 hours…… should have just given us the ticket in the beginning so we could have made our dinner reservations. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wife. It’s a great way to start her birthday.
If enough people are interested, I can post what happened 2 hours in that integration.
5 comments
Sounds like you guys had quite the evening. Might want to post this in /r/rideitjapan.
What color were the tickets you got from the police? The color indicates the severity of the infraction as well as the severity of the penalty. White tickets are really minor, blue tickets are somewhat more serious, and red tickets are “you’re f#cked”.
Although they did change the law earlier this year, scooters still need to have a license plate in order to be road legal. That’s for any public road, not just for highways. You also need to be enrolled in jibaiseki insurance – I hope you had that at least. I’ve pasted a link below that sets it out (in Japanese).
https://www.freemile.jp/blog/number-plate/
Just renewed my license in kobe. A majority of the video you watch is all about e-bikes. This is not a new law that was just enacted, but they’re being more strict now that it’s been around a while.
So nice story, but you were breaking the law.
So the e scooter can go over 6 km/h. It doesn’t matter if it has a throttle option or not.
Therefore you can not drive on sidewalks.
(E-scooters with a top speed of 20 kph can be driven on the left side of roadways or in bicycle lanes under amended safety standards. Those that run 6 kph or slower can operate even on walkways.)
Also an e scooter needs to fulfill either
a.) 50cc vehicle rules ( driver license and so forth)
b.) old rules for e scooter, valid until end 2024, includes a driving license too
c.) new rules, equipped with flashing green lights
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.npa.go.jp/english/bureau/traffic/document/Traffic_Rules_for_Specified_Small_Motorized_Bicycles.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiZjsyjtIyBAxVFQt4KHcAJCpAQFnoECCEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3y1AJ3Yf1LOL9Zm80hiEm7
Edit: Agreeing with Kalik, I’m just slow at formatting and typing…
I feel sorry for your wife and the interrogation and all, been there, had that happen to me as well.
I would like to know one thing, what is that amazing mythical book the officers here always reference and why civilians “can’t take pictures or photocopy of this book” and any information in it is apparently “the law” however if asked where is this law publicly available for people to see and learn they cannot provide any answers…. And then after making you feel like a serial killer by being interrogated for hours with your belongings locked in a safe box in the next room, no access to water or bathroom and being told to “hold it” or “wait till it’s over” for hours, they let you go home around 3-4 AM with a smile and a warning to “obey the rules of this country” and sometimes a fine.
Some of the “rules ” I heard about or saw in that book are not available anywhere online, many of my japanese friends tried to look them up as well because they haven’t even heard about some of them. Funnily enough even ex officers that are my close friends didn’t know some of the so called rules.