Cyclists caught looking at phones in Japan could face up to six months in
jail, as new stricter cycling laws take effect

According to the new law, cyclists could also be sentenced to three years
in prison and fined £2,500 for riding under the influence of alcohol
by RYAN MALLON
FRI, NOV 01, 2024 10:57

Cyclists caught using or even looking at their phones in Japan could now
face up to six months in prison, under strict new road traffic laws
introduced to clamp down on what authorities believe is the increasing
danger posed by people on bikes.

The revised Road Traffic Act, which takes effect today, means that any
cyclist who uses their phone in any capacity, for calls, texts, or just
general scrolling, will be subject to a maximum jail sentence of six
months, or a fine of 100,000 yen (£508).

In cases where a cyclist’s phone use results in a collision, a maximum penalty of a year’s imprisonment, or a fine of 300,000 yen (roughly £1,500) can be imposed.

“Making a call with a smartphone in your hand while cycling, or watching
the screen, is now banned and subject to punishment,” a National Police Agency leaflet said today, introducing the new law.

Previously, mobile phone use while cycling in Japan was governed by local public safety commissions, with 50,000 yen (£250) set as the maximum
penalty.

[linked article] Japan to make cycle helmets compulsory for all cyclists

Alongside this crackdown on mobile phone use, the traffic act has also increased the penalties available for those caught cycling under the
influence of alcohol.

According to the revised law, anyone riding a bike who produces a reading
of more than 0.15mg of alcohol per litre of breath is subject to a possible three-year jail term and a fine of 500,000 yen (£2,500). Meanwhile, anyone
who offers alcohol to cyclists, knowing they will soon ride their bike,
faces up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 300,000 yen.

The more serious offence of cycling while drunk was already included in Japanese law, and includes a maximum prison term of five years.

In the hours after the new law took effect on Friday, police authorities in Osaka said they had already recorded seven violations, including two men
who were caught cycling while drunk. One of the men had collided with
another cyclist and was issued a ticket, but no injuries were reported,
Kyodo News (link is external) reports.

[linked article] Dutch police hand out 850 fines per week to cyclists using mobile phones

The toughened penalties come amid concerns in Japan that, since the boom in cycling’s popularity in the country in the wake of the Covid pandemic,
while the number of collisions on the road are decreasing in general, collisions involving cyclists are on the rise.

Over 72,000 road traffic incidents involving people on bikes were recorded
in Japan last year, accounting for around 20 per cent of all collisions in
the country.

Meanwhile, in the first half of 2024 there was one fatality and 17 serious injuries stemming from incidents involving cyclists using their phones.

Between 2018 and 2022, the number of collisions caused by cyclists on their phones jumped by more than 50 per cent to 454, compared to 295 during the previous five-year period.

A National Police Agency official said the rise in phone-related collisions
– which, the Japanese government says, have resulted in the deaths of pedestrians – could be attributed not only to the ubiquitous presence of smartphones, but also the increasing variety of video and gaming content available on them.

The latest attempt to introduce stricter laws on cycling in Japan, where
riding bikes on the pavement remains both legal and common, comes over a
year after compulsory helmet laws for cyclists were introduced in the
country, which joined Argentina, Australia, Cyprus, and New Zealand as the
only nations that have national mandatory cycle helmet laws applying to all cyclists.

[linked article] No plans to introduce specific offence of using mobile
phone while cycling, says minister

When it comes to phone-related penalties in the UK, where motorists are
banned from using a handheld mobile phone as a communication device,
punishable by a £200 fine and six penalty points, there is no specific
offence related to using a mobile phone while cycling.

In April last year, transport minister Baroness Vere told the House of
Lords that the government currently has no plans to introduce specific legislation banning cyclists and e-scooter riders from using mobile phones while riding, telling her fellow politicians that “it is really important that we do not demonise all cyclists”.

However, while the government shoes no signs of introducing a specific law
to crack down on phone cyclists, using a phone while riding could still
result in police fining a cyclist for careless cycling, which carries a
maximum penalty of £1,000.

For instance, last November a cyclist in Aberdeen who complained to the
police after he was mistakenly pulled over by an officer for “using a
mobile phone” while riding on the road – when, in fact, the cyclist was attempting to save footage of a close pass from a lorry driver on his bike camera – was later told that, though there is no specific offence for using the electronic device while riding a bike, his actions could still be
deemed “careless and inconsiderate”.

[linked article] “Can’t the police use Google?” Cyclist mistakenly pulled over by police and threatened with ticket for “using phone” – and then gets
lectured by officer for not wearing helmet or hi-vis

During the incident, after stopping the cyclist the officer erroneously
argued that it was illegal to use a phone or electronic device while
cycling, told the rider to “look it up”, said that he would have received a ticket – or been arrested or charged – had she not been on her own, and advised him that not wearing a helmet or hi-vis clothing could lead to him getting “killed or smushed”.

And in April this year in Australia, where cyclists can be fined for brandishing mobile phones, a 22-year-old man was handed a $1,161 penalty
(just over £600) for using a handheld phone while cycling on Grafton Street
in Cairns, a city in the north of Queensland.

According to the Queensland government’s ‘Bicycle roads rules and safety’,
holding a mobile phone, either “in your hand or resting it on any part of your body”, when cycling is illegal. This applies even if the cyclist is stopped in traffic or if the phone is switched off.

[linked article] Cyclist in Australia slapped with $1,161 fine for using
phone while riding, as police “remind cyclists that they are subject to the same rules as motorists”

When “safely stopped”, cyclists can use a phone to pay for goods or services, present a digital licence or document to police, or gain access
to an area such as a car park.

“You are allowed hands-free use of a mobile phone, for example, in a cradle attached to the bike. Hands-free can include to accept a call, use
navigation apps, or skip a song,” the rules say.

“You can use a phone hands-free if it’s in a pocket of your clothing or a pouch you’re wearing. You must not touch or look at the phone. It can only
be operated using your voice.”

Following the fine, a spokesperson for Queensland Police said: “Police
would like to remind cyclists that they are subject to the same rules as motorists when using roads and must adhere to all road signals.”

Comments:

espressodan | 3 hours ago
1 like
Japan is a very compliant, low crime society.

Because of this, all crime, even very petty crime, is feared, and
politicians dictate very deaconian sounding maximum sentences for seemingly petty crimes.

The reality is, the back end of the criminal justice system in Japan is a 'different' approach that looks a lot like all of the things that our
criminal justice system has evolved to avoid. They take the view that 'a
badun' is a badun' and by setting high possible sentences for petty crimes, they can arrest said badun's for petty crimes, force a confession with black-and-white evidence under duress of lack of sleep, shame and not
causing further inconvenience to the family for said petty crimes and
secure a short prison sentence, and society won't complain because 'that
was the law and they broke it' and everybody knows they were a badun'.

Nobody who the police don't want to throw in jail is getting thrown in
jail. Especially as a Gaijin, you probably wouldn't even be fined because dealing with the language barrier would be seen as too inconvenient.

That said, due to the forementioned compliant element of society, you won't
see Japanese people riding and looking at their phone, because the shame of
a withering stare of dissaproval or the local policeman knocking on your
door to tell you off (which they will absolutely do) would be unbearable.

One could argue that such an active approach to nuisance behavior and petty crime could have it's merits in countries more familiar to us.

To put it another way, if the UK made it the law that riding a bike with a phone in your hand was illegal and punishable by up to six months in
prison, dealing with people statching phones in London would become quite a
lot easier from the point of view of securing a conviction if society
supported locking phone statchers up, which I suspect most people actually would if you take the Japanese approach of "It was Bob, and everybody knows
it was Bob, and I know he was wearing a balaclava in the video, but we
found Bob with the same bike in the same area looking shifty, so it was definately Bob, and if we leave Bob in a cold cell for a few days and don't
let him sleep then he'll confess if he knows he'll only do six months, and
if he didn't do this, we picked him up because he's a badun' anyway, so no
harm done".

I think that approach might be quite appealing to some people.

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chrisonabike replied to espressodan | 2 hours ago
0 likes
Absolutely. But as you say there seem to be a large number of folks (at
least online) who identify *some* of the end results from a distance (eg.
Low crime, "respect" etc) with approval and think "that's a great model".

I guess it might be nostalgia for the 1980s or earlier?

Knowing eg. the Met now (other forces with "bad apples" are available) I
don't want to go back.

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Rome73 replied to espressodan | 2 hours ago
0 likes
The first time I went to Japan for work, the thing that made the biggest impression on me were the large, glass fronted vending machines on the
streets selling food, drinks, fags and stuff. The glass screens were huge
and brightly lit - the kind of illuminated attraction that screamed 'come hither with your brick and vandalise me'. But not in Japan. Such civil
respect.

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VIPcyclist | 18 hours ago
0 likes
Apparently 20% of road traffic accidents, in Japan, involve a cyclist.

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mallardz | 22 hours ago
3 likes
Quote:
The latest attempt to introduce stricter laws on cycling in Japan, where
riding bikes on the pavement remains both legal and common, comes over a
year after compulsory helmet laws for cyclists were introduced in the
country, which joined Argentina, Australia, Cyprus, and New Zealand as the
only nations that have national mandatory cycle helmet laws applying to all cyclists.

Although it has widely been reported as 'mandatory', the law in question
not only doesn't have any sanction for not wearing a helmet, but it only
states that cyclists have a responsibility for making an effort to wear a helmet (doryoku gimu), it does not say you 'must' wear a helmet. Frankly
it's a very strange law that maybe only makes sense in Japan where
presumably they are trying to change the social norms of helmet wearing
without bothering with the hassle of enforcement/punishment etc.
Anecdotally I have heard that it has been quite effective amongst the older population.

Either way this law really can't be described as compulsory or mandatory.

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brooksby | 23 hours ago
3 likes
Quote:
anyone who offers alcohol to cyclists, knowing they will soon ride their
bike, faces up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 300,000 yen.

I'm trying to get my head around this one:

"Another round?"

"Yeah, alright - WAITAMINUTE: how are you proposing to travel once you have left this establishment?"

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andystow replied to brooksby | 18 hours ago
6 likes
brooksby wrote:
Quote:
anyone who offers alcohol to cyclists, knowing they will soon ride their
bike, faces up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 300,000 yen.

I'm trying to get my head around this one:

"Another round?"

"Yeah, alright - WAITAMINUTE: how are you proposing to travel once you have left this establishment?"

So I assume there are no pubs with parking lots there. Oh wait, I've been there, and there definitely were.

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mattw | 23 hours ago
8 likes
My immediate thought is how do these penalties in Japan for phone cycling compare to the those for the same activity in a motor vehicle?

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mitsky replied to mattw | 22 hours ago
5 likes
100%.
I was going to ask this.

Would be good to know, especially as we know that dangerous driving (with
or without phone use) is likely to cause far more KSIs/property damage so presumably the punishment for drivers is substantially higher.
I won't hold my breath.

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mattw replied to mitsky | 21 hours ago
1 like
The impression I get from a bit of checking is that they are being brought
in line.

Of course, using a mobile phone hands free whilst cycling is imo exactly
as bad as doing so whilst driving a motor vehicle.

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Mr Hoopdriver replied to mattw | 14 hours ago
2 likes
mattw wrote:
The impression I get from a bit of checking is that they are being brought
in line.

Of course, using a mobile phone hands free whilst cycling is imo exactly
as bad as doing so whilst driving a motor vehicle.

It's worse - I tried it once (over 25 years ago), never again. I ignore
the phone now or pull over and stop, that bit's easier than for car
drivers.

I'm a cyclist, ergo a weirdo* so nobody phones me anyway

*which I'm happy to be when I look around and see 'normal'.

<https://road.cc/content/news/phone-cyclists-japan-could-face-six-months-jail-311067>

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