Children may ride on the back of a bicycle only up to elementary school age, in principle — that is, until they start first grade. Parents in dual-income households say that limit no longer fits the way they get through a day, and a panel set up by the Automobile Safety Driving Center, which operates under the National Police Agency, has begun studying whether to relax the requirements for child-carrying bicycles.
Interest in the age limit has grown since April, when the blue ticket system — a simplified traffic fine for bicycle violations — was extended to cyclists. A lawmaker pressing for a change said the April start caught families off guard.
A day built around the bike
One parent, identified only as EL, rides both daughters — one in the lower grades of elementary school, one at nursery school — every day. Mornings mean dropping each child at a different place, and the afternoon runs from picking up the older child at after-school care to collecting the younger one, then taking the older child to lessons and going back out again.
"I have to move between several places in a short time," EL said on ABEMA Prime. Walking would eat up the hours, and public transport does not fit: the distances are neither short nor long, and no line runs at the right time. In the evening the children fuss and will not walk as planned.
“Especially when you work full time, the morning and evening hours are really limited, so it is no exaggeration to say a bicycle is not just a convenient vehicle but the infrastructure that lets us do both work and child care.”EL, parent of two
Weight rules and age rules out of step
Takashi Tsukasa, a House of Councillors member from Komeito who wants the age limit relaxed, said his office heard from many confused families after the April change. Parents finishing work and rushing to after-school care, or to day services for children with disabilities, found themselves suddenly subject to fines, he said. "Why is it that once they enter elementary school they can no longer ride?" he asked.
Under the SG standard, the safety benchmark for bicycles, a rear child seat is rated for a child weighing up to 24 kilograms. Tsukasa argued that the weight limit and the age rule do not line up: most children weigh about 20 kilograms when they start school, and 80 to 90 percent of first graders nationwide are under 24 kilograms.
“The rule that decides this simply by weight and the age limit are not linked, so it should be fine to move in the direction of effectively relaxing the age.”Takashi Tsukasa, House of Councillors member, Komeito
The panel's review is at an early stage, and no timetable for a decision has been given.