Travel in Japan by kick-scooter

Greetings!

I plan to move between cities by bus or train and "walk" within cities by kick-scooter.

Mostly plan to visit temples and gardens.

Is it a good idea to travel in Japan in November by a kickscooter? Please share your thoughts or concerns )

I think kick-scooter is not allowed to ride on public road. and also very dangerous for you.
if you make any contacts to someone (or even to dogs) in pedestrian walkways, you are in 100% wrong side. you have to pay all the damage, and there is no insurance to cover such accidents. if the damage is severe, you will be arrested and in the worst case, you will be jailed.
if police finds you, you will be stopped for investigation. if you make some mistakes like that you don't carry your passport, you will not be released easily.
of course, there are some stupid young people who are doing like you in Japan.

It was just fine for our 3 yr old, who used it to move at adult waking pace - and who we kept on a "lead" in crowded areas.
I'm guessing that you're a bit older and plan on traveling a bit faster...

Within cities you can:
- take a bus
- take a train/subway
- take a taxi
- rent a car
- walk
- use a bicycle
- use a wheelchair
...

If you have problems walking but no problems using this kick scooter, then you should be able to use a bicycle, right? In that case you could opt for a bicycle. If you need to bring it along on a train / bus, it needs to be a bicycle that can be put into a bag. Best a folding bicycle. Unpacked bicycles are not allowed on public transport in Japan.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

In major cities (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, etc.) you are going to find it way to crowded to use a kick-scooter. You'll just wind up carrying it.

That way for public roads in nationwide is "illegal" by traffic law,
also skateboard, roller/inline skates, unicycles, Segway(all models) and more similar ones ,too.

For cyclist :
"Piste bikes" without brakes is illegal in nationwide.
"Tandem bicycle" is different for each prefecture whether it is legal or not.
Most prefectures of 47 is illegal for public roads, only on closed safer cycling roads are NOT.
"Recumbent" is legal.

Greetings!

Thanks a lot for your answers! Much appreciate it!

To be honest I was really surprized about this information. Why bycycle is legal and kick-scooter that should be much safer for pedestrians is illegal ?!

I bought this one:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/711jnVQta%2BL._SL1500...


Here is the guy who traveled accross Japan by kick scooter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9VU2VzOHxc

Don't know whether it had contacts with police... anyway I am really confused.

The thing you possibly don't know is that in the bigger cities bicycles must/tend to ride on pavements and not on the road, so in busy places you're not really gaining anything by cycling, as you have to move at walking pace in many situations.
Of course people ignore this to some extent and of course there are places where people can cycle in the roads, but in most of the places that the average tourist will go a bicycle isn't really all that useful for bumbling about down the main streets.

I did some research for you in Japanese. In conclusion, you'll be OK. I see kids riding it around plenty of time.

By the law, kick-scooter isn't classified as any sort of vehicle. Law clearly defines exactly and specifically what is a car, motorcycle, bicycle, etc. Kick-scooter doesn't fall into any of classification. In fact, there is NO specific law for it. In general, it is believed that Kick-scooter is treated the same as 遊具(reads: Yuugu) = play equipment. Under the current law (or lack of its specific law), both Kick-scooter for kids and adults are considered as just "play equipment". Apparently there are people arguing that Kick-scooter for adult shouldn't be considered as "play equipment". But hey, the law is the law.

What that means for you is you cannot use your "play equipment" on the roads for vehicles (e.g. any roads that motorcycle/car/truck runs, and bicycle lane only for cyclist on bicycle). You can only use your "play equipment" on sidewalk or where people walk. So, travel in Japan by kick-scooter is NOT illegal in any way. Basically, use common sense and you will be OK.

Enjoys your "play equipment" ;-)

Sitti01 and Winter, thanks a lot for the assistance!!!

Do you know if it is polite to walk with a kick-scooter on a hand in Temples?

And the last question is do you know if there is a room/place in the night buses to transport a folding kick-scooter?

The thing you possibly don't know is that in the bigger cities bicycles must/tend to ride on pavements and not on the road

This is wrong. Wherever it is, bicycles must go on the roadway as it's classified as 軽車両, the same as horse carriage. Horse carriages are not allowed to go on pavements.

all I can tell you is that no one will not sympathize with you, if you have (or make) traffic accidents, because those are expected.

Do you know if it is polite to walk with a kick-scooter on a hand in Temples?

Well, no one uses kick scooters so hard to say if it is polite or not. I would say if it is folded up you can probably just carry it around. But why would you. It's just an unnecessary weight. Just park it with the bicycles somewhere at the entrance of the temple/shrine.

And the last question is do you know if there is a room/place in the night buses to transport a folding kick-scooter?
I don't know about space, but I would expect that you need a bag to transport it on ANY kind of public transport. For bicycles the rule is that it needs to be folded up and put entirely into a bag. No piece of the bicycle is officially allowed to stick out. (I have to admit that I am using only a cover, i.e. It is open below, and also the seat is sticking out, as i use it as a handle to carry the bike and did never have problems with that. But officially this is not the proper way of bringing a bicycle. ) There are probably no specific rules for kick scooters, so better be safe and have a bag where you can put it in for transport.
The only long distance bus I took with bicycle had a luggage compartment below the seats. So likely night buses will be similar.

I don't expect any traffic accidents. This is not a heavy vehicle, just 5 kg + mine's 100kg :).
The optimum speed is 10 km/h, and it has double brakes.

LikeBike, thanks for your answer!

My wife made these bags for our 2 scooters:
https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/898391/1983285.0/0_19a376_d482dc0a_ori...

I hope this bug will be Ok to transport my kick-scooter?

To me the bag looks okay for transport. No part of the scooter is peaking out , so nothing to complain for railway/bus... employees.

Regarding accidents, obviously you don't plan to have any accidents but as you will need to ride on the sidewalk it is possible that unwilling you hit a pedestrian. And that's where problems can start. In Japan essentially there is the idea that "the bigger" is always in fault. So even if you were rolling slowly and on a predictable path, and an elderly lady just kind of runs into YOU it will most likely be seen as your fault. The same would be true, if you were riding a bicycle on the pedestrian walkway. So that's what people on this forum are trying to warn you about.
Japanese pedestrians are very accustomed to share the walkway with bicycles (although bikes should be normally on the road, many cyclists are not). But as kick scooters are kind of unheard and from far you will just look like a pedestrian (similar height) pedestrians might not expect you to have the speed of a cyclist. (Japanese cyclists on walkways are SLOW).