New Bicycle Rules, New Scams

New bicycle laws went into effect in April of this year, in an effort to make cycling safer. In 2024, there were over 67,000 bicycle related traffic accidents in Japan.  Under the new system, police are able to issue on-the-spot tickets, incurring fines for 113 cycling offenses to cyclists 16 and over. If you are issued a ticket under the new system, you have eight days to pay the fine in cash at a bank or post office. 

Already criminals are at work, though! There have been multiple incidents of scammers all over Japan, posing as police officers, who stop bicycle riders and demand the fine be paid on the spot. If this happens to you, don’t pay! Real police officers will be wearing uniforms and will issue a ticket, but they do not collect money from the bicycle riders. 

One of  the new rules that seems to be in the gray area is failure to use arm signals before making a turn. The new rules require cyclists to indicate a turn by extending the arm for a turn in that direction, or a bent arm with finger tips upward for a turn in the other direction, with a fine of 5000 yen for failure to comply. Another rule requires both hands on the handlebars for safety.  Sounds like it is hard to be in compliance with the law, and easy for a scammer to try to get your money.

There have been quite a few reports of these scammers, but I haven’t read about any of them getting caught yet.