Traffic Rules Test: Rules of the Road

The rule is that pedestrians keep to the right-hand edge, because facing the traffic makes danger easier to notice. Bicycles are the opposite and keep left. A family mnemonic: people on the right, cars and bicycles on the left.

Obstructing a pedestrian at a crossing is an offence, carrying a 9,000 yen fine and 2 demerit points. 'Most cars do not stop' is no excuse. On the pedestrian side, showing your intention to cross, for example by raising a hand, greatly increases the rate at which cars stop.

National law contains no direct prohibition; municipalities such as Yamato City, Adachi Ward and Toshima Ward, which covers Ikebukuro, ban it by ordinance with no penalty attached. However, if you collide with someone and injure them while looking at your phone, you can face negligent-injury liability and civil damages. 'Not illegal' does not mean 'no risk'.

Crossing immediately in front of or behind a vehicle, and crossing diagonally, are prohibited, and in practice a pedestrian in such an accident is assigned roughly ten to twenty percent of the fault. Compensation is reduced accordingly. Pedestrians are not invincible; protection of the weaker party has limits.

Under the Road Traffic Act a bicycle is a light vehicle, 軽車両 (keisharyo). That is why the rule is to ride on the left side of the carriageway, and why the same rules as for cars apply on signals, compulsory stops and drink-driving. Treating a bicycle as if it were a pedestrian is the root of accidents and offences.

The rule is the carriageway. The exceptions are a sign permitting bicycles on the pavement, riders under 13, riders aged 70 and over, riders with a physical disability, and a carriageway made dangerous by roadworks or similar. On the pavement you must ride slowly on the side nearer the carriageway and give way to pedestrians. Using the bell to move pedestrians aside is itself an offence under the rules limiting use of the warning device.

From 1 April 2026 the blue ticket, a non-criminal fine, applies to bicycle riders aged 16 and over. Pay the fine and no criminal proceedings follow. Enforcement has moved in one step from mere warnings to something with real teeth. Breaking a rule you did not know about now hits your wallet.

At 12,000 yen, phone use while riding is in the top bracket of bicycle offences. Penalties were already toughened in November 2024, that is 2024/11, and if you create a danger of an accident you can face criminal punishment of up to one year of imprisonment, a red ticket. While riding, the phone belongs in a pocket or a holder.

Each prefectural public safety commission regulates this as part of the duty of safe driving, and the blue-ticket fine is 5,000 yen. For earphones the test is being unable to hear the sounds needed to ride safely; in some prefectures even one earphone is out, depending on the volume. An umbrella, even in a fixed holder, is a protruding object and blocks the view. Rainwear is the right answer.

Running a light is 6,000 yen and riding on the right against the flow is 6,000 yen. Riding against the flow means head-on encounters with oncoming traffic, and because you arrive from the direction nobody is watching, the accident rate is high, so it is a priority for enforcement. 'It is only a short trip' no longer works.

No lights is 5,000 yen and failing to stop is 5,000 yen. Lights are not about you being able to see; they are about being seen. Reflective material and a rear light add a great deal. For a compulsory stop, putting a foot down and checking both ways is the reliable way to do it.

Carrying a passenger is 3,000 yen and riding abreast is 3,000 yen, except where a sign permits riding abreast. Exceptions include a proper child seat for a pre-school child, and tandem bicycles. Chatting side by side blocks vehicles trying to overtake and is a classic pattern for collisions.

Not only drunken riding but also riding with alcohol in the system, from 0.15 mg per litre of breath, is now punishable, the change taking effect in November 2024, that is 2024/11. Penalties also reach the shop that served the drink and anyone who let the person ride. This is red-ticket territory, not a blue ticket. Note that pushing the bicycle makes you a pedestrian and is lawful, so if you have been drinking, push it home.

Since April 2023 all ages are under a duty to make an effort to wear one. There is no penalty, but about half of fatal injuries in cycling deaths are head injuries, and the fatality rate without a helmet is roughly twice that with one. Not wearing one may also be taken into account when compensation is negotiated after an accident.

In a 2013 judgment the Kobe District Court ordered the parents to pay about 95,210,000 yen. That case triggered the spread of ordinances across Japan making cycle insurance compulsory. Cover costs a few hundred yen a month and can be added as a rider to car or fire insurance. Without it, one accident can rewrite your life plan.

The toughening of December 2019, that is 2019/12, means that merely HOLDING the phone costs an ordinary car driver 1.8 man yen, that is 18,000 yen, and 3 points. The criminal penalty is up to 6 months of imprisonment or a fine of up to 100,000 yen. Hands-free calling does not count as holding under the Road Traffic Act, though some prefectures restrict it by ordinance, and the loss of attention is the same.

The 'danger to traffic' category is outside the non-criminal fine system, so it goes straight to criminal procedure on a red ticket: up to 1 year of imprisonment or a fine of up to 300,000 yen, and 6 points, which suspends the licence at once. One video, one message, and the licence and the job are gone.

The distracted-driving rules apply while the vehicle is moving. Using the phone while stopped is not an offence, though being slow to move off when the light turns green is a separate question of courtesy and safety. Crawling along in a traffic jam, however, is out. The smart driver turns off notifications and sets the navigation before starting.

As with a phone, staring at an image while moving is an offence, and the rule of thumb is said to be 2 seconds or more. Two seconds at 60 km/h is about 33 metres travelled blind. Set the destination and check the route while parked, and rely mainly on voice guidance.

From 0.15 mg per litre of breath you are in the 'alcohol present' category, and from 0.25 it is 25 points, an outright revocation. Even below the figure, if you cannot drive normally it becomes drunken driving, which is punished more heavily still. A single beer takes hours to clear, and morning-after alcohol is detected too. If you came by car, do not drink; if you drank, use a driving service.

The statutory limits on the main carriageway are a maximum of 100 km/h and a minimum of 50 km/h. Some stretches, such as parts of the Shin-Tomei and the Tohoku Expressway, are posted at 120 km/h, and posted signs always take priority. Driving too slowly is also an offence, which is a distinctive feature of expressways.

On expressways you have a duty to check fuel, coolant, tyres and the like before setting off, so stopping because you ran out of fuel is an offence, carrying a 9,000 yen fine and 1 point. More importantly, a stationary vehicle on the main carriageway is one of the greatest causes of fatal rear-end collisions. Make it a habit to refuel when the tank falls to half.

Ten categories of conduct are covered, including tailgating, forcing another car sideways and braking suddenly, with up to 3 years of imprisonment or a fine of up to 500,000 yen. Create a marked danger, such as forcing a car to stop on an expressway, and it rises to 5 years. Either way the licence is revoked at once. When you feel the anger rising, letting the other driver go ahead is the strongest defence.

Squaring up or arguing is the worst move. Get to a safe place with people around, such as a service area or a convenience store, lock the doors, keep the windows shut and call 110. A 'recording in progress' sticker for a dashboard camera also has a deterrent effect. Even if the other driver gets out, never open a window or a door.

There is no legal duty, and the fitting rate is above half. Yet footage is decisive evidence when apportioning fault after an accident or proving harassment. A front-and-rear two-camera set with parking surveillance is the standard choice. It is an investment of a few tens of thousands of yen that ends arguments about who said what.

The transport ministry and the expressway companies are converting gates to electronic-only tolling. In spring 2026, 35 toll gates on routes such as the Tomei, Shin-Tomei and Chuo expressways become electronic-only, and on the Shuto Expressway the count rises to 134 entrances. Since the direction of travel is that cash will no longer get you onto the expressway, frequent users are better off fitting a unit, and weekend discounts are limited to electronic tolling anyway.

Even electronic-only gates have a lane marked 'support', where staff can let you through, with the toll settled in cash or otherwise. What you must never do is reverse inside a toll gate, which is prohibited and causes many accidents, or force your way through, which is toll evasion. Stay calm and use the intercom.

Because emissions rules have ended production of 50cc machines, vehicles of 125cc or less restricted to a maximum output of 4.0 kW are now treated as mopeds, the change taking effect in November 2025, that is 2025/11. The moped rules stay as they are, however: a statutory limit of 30 km/h, the two-stage right turn, and no passengers. A full-power 125cc machine that looks identical may not be ridden.

An ordinary licence obtained from 2017 onwards covers under 3.5 tonnes gross, a maximum payload under 2 tonnes and up to 10 occupants. Even a 2-tonne rental truck can exceed 3.5 tonnes gross, and driving without the right licence by mistake is a common problem. If you drive trucks for work, get the semi-medium licence or above.

An automatic-only licence does not cover manual cars. Electric and hybrid cars are all automatic, so there is no problem there. If you later want to drive a manual, you can lift the restriction at a driving school, typically four practical lessons plus an assessment. Driving outside the restriction is a breach of licence conditions, carrying demerit points and a fine.

Manuals are only around one percent of new cars, and most learners now choose the automatic-only licence. Unless you plan to work in haulage, construction or vehicle maintenance, or to drive an imported sports car, there is almost no situation where the restriction gets in your way, and it costs less in both money and lesson hours.

Points accumulate over the past 3 years, and with no prior record 6 points means a 30-day suspension while 15 points means revocation. A string of careless offences will get you there. Courses for offenders and for suspended drivers can shorten the period. Note that points are added, not deducted.

It was created to secure young drivers for the freight and delivery industries. It can be taken from 18 with no prior licence and covers gross vehicle weight under 7.5 tonnes, roughly the 2 to 3 tonne truck class. The gap above the ordinary licence, under 3.5 tonnes, is exactly the delivery-truck band.

A compulsory stop means the wheels stop completely. Rolling slowly through is failing to stop, which for a car means a 7,000 yen fine and 2 points, and for a bicycle a 5,000 yen blue ticket. The purpose is to prevent collisions at blind junctions, and it is always near the top of the enforcement figures.

One diagonal stripe means no parking, so brief stopping is allowed; two stripes forming a cross means no stopping or parking at all. It is easy to confuse with the no-entry sign, which has a single red horizontal bar. Reading the supplementary plate underneath, giving times and days, is what the professionals do.

Yellow diamonds warn of hazards ahead, such as a level crossing, traffic signals or a slippery surface. Unlike the round regulatory signs they carry no penalty, but ignore them and you are the one who suffers in the crash. The less familiar the road, the more alert to yellow you should be.

It is a measure that applies a 30 km/h limit to a whole area of residential streets, discouraging drivers from using them as short cuts. Thirty km/h is the threshold at which the fatality rate in a collision with a pedestrian drops sharply. Zone 30 Plus, which adds humps and other physical measures, is also spreading.

They look almost identical, which makes this a standard trap in the written test. White arrow on blue is one-way, a regulatory sign; blue arrow on white is the left-turn-permitted board, which lets you turn left even on a red. Get it the wrong way round, drive against the flow, and a serious accident follows.

Under the parking-warden system, if the driver neither pays the fine nor comes forward, the registered user is charged an abandoned-parking levy, for example 15,000 yen for an ordinary car in a no-parking zone. Leave it unpaid and the vehicle cannot pass its roadworthiness inspection. Even a quick stop at a convenience store can be ticketed within minutes if it is on a warden's round.

Parking means a continuing halt: waiting for customers, waiting for a load, unloading for more than 5 minutes, or the driver leaving the vehicle so that it cannot be moved at once. Loading or unloading for 5 minutes or less, and letting people in and out, are stopping. In a no-stopping zone, however, both are out. Hazard lights are not a get-out-of-jail card.

A blue ticket means the non-criminal fine: pay it and there are no criminal proceedings and no record. A red ticket means criminal proceedings, with a criminal fine or worse, and a record. Even for 'just a traffic offence', red-ticket conduct such as drink-driving, a large speeding excess or the dangerous category of distracted driving leaves a criminal record, which in some occupations affects the rest of your life.

A standard trap in the written test. If there is a pedestrian in the safety zone you must slow down; if there is not, there is no duty. Sentences containing 'always', 'all' or 'absolutely' should make you look for an exception, and that instinct is the key to the written test. Once you have it, the real exam is within reach.

The two-stage right turn is required at intersections with three or more lanes in each direction, and at intersections where a sign requires it. Conversely, where a sign forbids the two-stage right turn, you turn on the inside line. The rule applies to new-standard mopeds as well, the 125cc machines limited to 4 kW.

Since 2008 belts have been compulsory in every seat. On expressways the driver receives 1 demerit point, while on ordinary roads a verbal caution is the practice, but the duty is the same. An unbelted rear passenger becomes a projectile in a crash and can crush the people in front. Everyone belts up before you set off.