Bicycles are widely used in Japan for everyday life by people of all age groups and social standings. Commuting to school, work or to the closest railway station, picking up children from preschool or doing the daily groceries are among the activities commonly done by bicycle.
Types of Bicycles
In Japanese, bicycles are known as jitensha or charinko (slang). The most common bicycles for every day use are typically equipped with a basket and/or a child seat (or two), a simple lock, a kickstand and just one gear.
Basic everyday bicycles cost around 10,000 Yen (about US$ 100), while used ones are available for less. More advanced models with multiple gears, for example, are slightly more expensive.
Foldable bicycles, mountain bikes and road racing bicycles are getting more common, but are still vastly outnumbered by the inexpensive everyday bicycles.
Road Rules
Due to the high popularity of bicycles, there are dedicated bicycle parking areas near most railwaystations and shopping centers. Here and there you may even find multi-storey parking garages for exclusive use by bicycles.
Where there is a lack of designated parking space, bicycles will be ruthlessly parked even in clearly designated non-parking zones. In some areas, wrongly parked bicycles may be removed by the local authorities and can only get returned against a fine.
Prosper Co. Ltd Japan
offers a variety of cars
http://www.prosperjp.com/stock/JAGUAR/X-TYPE/019169/
Please contact me for further assistance:
Ms. Ai Tamaki
Sales Representative
ai@prosperjp.com
Office Tel #: +81-50-5539-9816
