3 ms·

When/how do they check bike ownership?

• Theodores 3y ago
  I don't know too much about the subject. Japan is low crime compared to the West and that is a cultural difference. There are still thieves, and the bicycle is always what thieves want because it has utility. If you steal a bike you can ride it, you haven't got to 'fence' it (sell it to buy drugs). The benefit of having a police register of bicycles is that it can be checked. Therefore, if someone gets caught for some crime, the bike ownership can be checked. I don't think they have checkpoints to catch people on stolen bikes, so, if you have a 'second hand bike' (someone else's stolen pride and joy), then you can keep riding it so long as you don't get caught or in an accident. Much like in the olden days before ANPR you could drive a stolen car without expectation of getting caught.
  • toyg 3y ago
    They don't have checkpoints but they have little police stations every few blocks; so they are acutely aware of what's going on and who's now got a bike that he didn't have yesterday. It's expensive, and someone might argue it's oppressive to have police so close at all times, but it's a key element of Japanese policing - and the low rate of crime in the country is definitely affected (somehow) by such policing.
• Dah00n 3y ago
  When you buy a bike or when the police stop someone on a bike.