Learning to ride a bike

In general, what age do children in Japan start to learn to ride a tricycle? On average, what age are they able to ride a bike without training wheels? I grew up in a community where bike riding was for fun but not important for transportation, so I am impressed by how young the children seem to be able to ride a bike so skillfully and I wonder how old they are.

MomotaroPeachBoy,

"In general, what age do children in Japan start to learn to ride a tricycle?"

About age 3. This is about a tricycle, and not a bicycle with training wheels.

"On average, what age are they able to ride a bike without training wheels?"

Somewhere between age 5 to 8 or so, which is about the same as how it was when I was growing up in Los Angeles.

"I grew up in a community where bike riding was for fun but not important for transportation"

Not all, but most people I know here in Japan, do not use bicycles as an important means of transportation. As for me, I've always found it hard to park them legally, and all the schools my son attended prohibited the use of bicycles to go to school. My mother has lived in Tokyo most of her life, where the land is flat and driving cars aren't as common as it is in other cities, and she has never been able to ride bicycles.

Nowadays, commuting to offices by bicycle seems to be a trend in Japan, but probably the most bike-friendly places I've traveled to are Holland and China.