Everyone seems to be scooting themselves right into trouble.

Despite some having been originally built centuries ago when the only traffic was people on foot and a very few lucky enough to have horses, roads in Japan are now remarkably more crowded with pedestrians, motorists, cyclists, and even the occasional person driving a suitcase.

And among this tangled mess of transportation modes, one has stood out as particularly problematic in recent years. It’s hard to skim through the news in Japan and not find a story about someone on a motorized kick scooter being a nuisance. Even though they’re mandated to only have a top speed of 20 kilometers (12 miles) per hour on streets and six kilometers per hour (4 miles per hour) on sidewalks, they seem to frequently end up where they don’t belong.

▼ Here are some defying death on major highways a few days ago.

Until now, the problems have been mostly anecdotal, with people complaining on social media, intermingled with news reports of reckless kick-scootering, but on 17 June the National Police Agency announced some rather shocking numbers to reveal the extent of motorized kick scooter problems. In 2024 alone, there were 41,246 traffic violations committed by these scooters, and to put that into perspective, there are only about 22,000 registered motorized kick scooters in Japan. This means that a single kick scooter was involved in 1.8 traffic violations on average per year.

To confirm that this is a problem unique to this particular vehicle, the National Police Agency also said that there were 51,564 bicycle violations in 2024, but there are about 68 million bikes in Japan. This amounts to about one traffic violation per 1,320 bicycles.

The problem is said to be largely related to how easily it is for anyone to access a motorized kick scooter. After a law regarding these vehicles was revised in 2011, anyone over 16 could operate one without any form of license, and rental services like Luup became widespread across the country, meaning a scooter doesn’t even need to be purchased in order to be ridden.

Regarding the situation, Manabu Sakai, Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission said, “It was difficult to anticipate this when the law was revised. We will keep a close eye on the situation.” It seems strange that they couldn’t envision that giving a skateboard fewer wheels, a motor, and handlebars so anyone could stay up on it might cause problems down the road. I’m also not sure what they’re planning to “keep a close eye on” since the writing is pretty much on the wall at this point.

Readers of the news online were also either frustrated or suspicious that the government can’t seem to see the fact that these scooters need some sort of regulation as soon as possible.

“There should have been a license needed from the beginning.”
“Those things reek of corporate greed and favoritism in the government.”
“We’ll have to wait until a politician’s family member is involved in an accident before they’ll do anything about it.”
“At least make them the same class as mopeds.”
“Those things are designed to look like toys too, so no one takes them seriously.”
“Also crack down on these idiots doing 30 over the speed limit on mopeds.”
“If that guy is serious about not being able to anticipate this, he’s beneath a moron.”
“Wow, the thing that everyone except the government expected to happen happened.”
“Those things are really useful, but a lot of idiots are using them too.”

I agree that rental motorized scooters are extremely convenient, but I’m really hesitant to use them myself for two reasons. First, I’d assume that everyone else on the road will automatically hate me just for using one, and second, I’d feel under extra scrutiny from the police since they’re clearly on high alert and busting scooter riders left and right.

I’m probably not alone in feeling that way either, so it might be in the best interest for companies like Luup to push for some sort of licensing system in order to attract more users. It wouldn’t need to be nearly as grueling as that for cars or even mopeds, but just enough to at least weed out the terminally reckless among us.

Source: The Sankei Shimbun, My Game News Flash
Images: ©SoraNews24
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