From April next year Japan will become one of the few countries in the world to mandate the use of helmets when bicycling.
The Japanese Cabinet approved a government ordinance on December 20 that will introduce the helmet stipulation into Japan’s Road Traffic Act.
Enforcement will be through expectation rather than fines, reports the Mainichi newspaper.
Argentina, Cyprus, Australia, and New Zealand are the only other countries to have cycle helmet compulsion, often enforced with punitive fines.
The bicycle-mad Netherlands—with 25% of journeys done by bike nationally, and with some cities where use is above 50%—does not have a mandatory cycle helmet law. There is no epidemic of cycling-related head injuries in the Netherlands.
Bicycle helmets are not designed to protect from concussion. “No helmet design has been proven to prevent concussions,” states the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC). Bicycle helmets are typically designed for low-speed falls to the ground from head height; manufacturers stress that their products are not protective against higher energy crashes such as those involving fast-moving motor vehicles.
“There are many misconceptions about helmets,” a cycle helmet executive told British trade magazine Cycling Industry News in 2020.
“We do not design helmets specifically to reduce chances or severity of injury when impacts involve a car,” revealed Eric Richter, a then senior brand development manager at Giro, a US bicycling company which makes helmets.
Australia was the first country to make wearing helmets mandatory when riding bicycles, with laws enacted in Australian states and territories between 1990 and 1992.
Critics have long argued that Australia’s mandatory cycle helmet laws reduced cycle use by 30%, although this is a contested statistic.
Japan currently has high cycle use. The most typical bicycle in Japan is a simple roadster known as a mamachari, or “mom’s chariot.” In Tokyo, 16% of all trips are by bicycle.
Earlier this month the U.K. transport minister Jesse Norman refused a call for mandatory cycle helmet wearing by British cyclists.
“The safety benefits of mandating cycle helmets for cyclists are likely to be outweighed by the fact that this would put some people off cycling, thereby reducing the wider health and environmental benefits,” said Norman.
Japan’s cycle helmet compulsion law will come into effect on April 1, 2023. Critics will no doubt watch closely to monitor any drop off in cycle use.
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December 22, 2022 at 07:11AM
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Japan To Introduce Mandatory Helmet Law For People On Bicycles - Forbes
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