AFP news, 13 November 2006, Tokyo, JAPAN: A woman poses with half-scaled models of Japanese electronics giant Toshiba’s prototype of a scooter-like tricycle for commuters which can communicate with other vehicles using their LED headlights that flash several million times a second, at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo, 13 November 2006. The flashing headlights would enable the vehicles, which Toshiba is expecting to be commercialised in about 10 years time, to communicate by receiving and transferring information to help navigation and avoid collisions.

“When did they enact the ban? When living there between 04 and 05 I saw a few of them in Nagoya, Sakae area mostly.”

For Segways, it’s, “illegal to ride them on public roads in Japan. (MSN, 16 Nov 2005)” Under Japan’s traffic law, the Segway cannot run on public roads but it can be uses on private land such as shopping centers and factories is up to owner of the land. When President Bush gave PM Koizumi a Segway as a gift, there was a lot of giggling in the Japanese press that Koizumi was only able to use in the driveway of the new Prime Minister’s residence.

According to a ruling of The Road Traffic Law of Japan (Oct 2006), it reads that it is only possible to use a Segway on privately owned land. A very rough translation of the ruling reads that the Segway is only for:

*Transportation in shopping mall in facilities and amusement park with vast site such as factory, warehouse, distribution center, universities, and laboratories as corporate usage
*It uses it in the area such as a private security companies and robot special districts of the local government specially authorized for guard in in facilities and the building.

As a practical matter, Segways are so rare in Japan that cops would laugh and let them pass. Japanese police HATE getting involved.

Although the national traffic law makes it impossible to get a licence plate for a Segway, ultra micro-cars (under 50cc) especially electric ones can be registered with the local municipality rather than the national system. It might be that those Nagoya Segways *could* receive a licence plate via a bribe to a local municipality or for a special use such as at World Expo in Nagoya last year.

I’ve looked into buying a Segway. I have found that the only real legal exception for public use of a Segway is for a certified handicapped person like me could claim their Segway is an electric wheelchair. However, the Segway is NOT a prescribed mobility device so the national health care system would not pay for a Segway. On the other hand, an electric wheelchair or low-speed electric scooter-cart is 100% free and its maintenance is covered by the Japanese national health system.