By SHIMPACHI YOSHIDA/ Staff Writer
January 19, 2023 at 18:50 JST
People ride electric kick scooters from a sharing system in Tokyo's Roppongi district in May 2021. (Kosuke Tauchi)
Electric kick scooters will become more widely accessible once they are reclassified under the law this summer so they will no longer require a driver’s license.
Under the new rules, people under the age of 16 will not be allowed to drive one and no license will be required for models with a top speed under 20 kph.
The National Police Agency said on Jan. 19 that revisions to the Road Traffic Law will take effect on July 1, placing electric scooters under a newly created legal category of “specific small motorized bicycles.”
Revisions to the law enacted in April 2022 set out that electric scooters can ride on the left side of car lanes, as well as in bicycle lanes and even on sidewalks, so long as they do not go over 6 kph.
Under the new rules, riders are recommended, but not required, to wear a helmet.
The law previously defined electric scooters as “motorized bicycles” requiring a license.
But following requests from scooter-sharing businesses, the government launched a trial program in October 2020 to see how a share system of electric kick scooters could benefit communities.
Under the pilot program, the e-scooters were categorized as “special small motor vehicles” and allowed to ride in bicycle lanes and on the left side of car lanes with a maximum speed limit of 15 kph.
As of Jan. 13, 15 scooter-sharing operators have taken part in the trial program in 19 prefectures, according to police.
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