The measure is aimed at reducing accidents in urban areas with heavy pedestrian traffic and narrow streets, marking a major shift in the country’s traffic rules as these roads account for around 70% of all ordinary roads nationwide.
[...] above [30 kph] the risk of pedestrians suffering fatal injuries in accidents is said to spike.
[...]
The aim of the speed limit change “is to prevent accidents by stopping dangerous driving, such as failing to slow down even on busy streets”
Japan to lower residential road speed limit from 60 to 30 kph
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/08/31/japan/residential-road-speed-limit/
67 Comments
Amuro_eat@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 59 pts · 1d
60 kph seems really high for residential, yikes
gedfromgont@piefed.ca · 23 pts · 1d
The problem is also that likely no one did 60, but rather close to 70.
So for everyone thinking 30 is too low, do not fret, people will just drive 40 anyhow and that is not too slow.
farmgineer@nord.pub · 13 pts · 1d
Definitely. If you're not going the "customary" 10 over, people will often ride right on your ass everywhere I've driven in Japan.
Edit: I can't grammar today
Eheran@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 23h
Actual 10 over or 10 over the speedometer?
can@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 19h
What?
farmgineer@nord.pub · 1 pts · 16h
I don't understand the question. What I meant was, if the sign says 30, most people are doing at lead 39-40 (some up to 49).
vardogor@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 13h
i think they're alluding to how speedometers are generally made to display a couple units above true speed? but I'm not sure why
farmgineer@nord.pub · 2 pts · 13h
Our vehicle inspections (3rd year for new vehicles otherwise every 2 years) in Japan strictly test the speedo, but I guess I don't know for sure that they aren't letting it display faster than reality.
Eheran@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 8h
Speedometers show more, in many countries by law. The actual speed is thus lower. Depending on the car und the tires, real 50 can be shown as nearly 60. There are still speeding people, but when driving the real velocity that is actually not so often.
HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org · 5 pts · 1d
Not in Switzerland, hehe.
Amuro_eat@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 1d
Yeah a lot of people will be going over the 60 and just get into crazy dangerous speeds when they need to be alert and cautious. My area is 30 and some people are very clearly hitting like 50-60 and it makes me want to chase their cars down but I’d never catch up, cos they’re going so god damned fast. Allowing 60 is going to invite some massive twats to hit 80
Kangae_Hishiryo@scribe.disroot.org · 1 pts · 15h
Yeah, they should've enforced a 20kmph or even 10kmph rule.
ramble81@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 23h
Surprised as that’s even faster than most places in the car-brained US. It’s “only” 48kph (30mph) on the high side and 32kph (20mph) most other places
Amuro_eat@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 22h
Right?? I’m in the US and was really surprised that even we consider that way too fast for residential. It’s 20mph on my street and I would be livid with anything over 30
drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 15h
Japan actually does very little in the way of pedestrian or bicycle friendly road design compared to most European countries (there are a few things worth learning from IMO, just not as many as, say, the Netherlands).
It works as well as it does because of the narrow streets and how little car traffic they have (even less than the Netherlands, which does way more to try and reign in cars but has way more of them). They have so little car traffic because you have to prove you have a permanent parking space in order to buy a car, there's no on-street parking, and the public transit network is very extensive. That and the aforementioned narrow streets just make driving inconvenient compared to the other options.
phant@lemmy.world · 49 pts · 1d
They've done this in a few areas of Melbourne. The fatal injury data is certainly a compelling case:
"the risk of fatality for a pedestrian hit by a vehicle travelling at 30km/h is around 10%, compared to approximately 40% at 40km/h and more than 80% at 50km/h."
https://acrs.org.au/evidence-supports-30km-h-speed-limits-in-school-zones/
I will admit that driving at 30km/h is pretty painful sometimes.
No_Maines_Land@lemmy.ca · 29 pts · 1d
That's probably street design issue.
horse@feddit.org · 11 pts · 1d
This. 30km/h is common in Germany and if the road design is good, then it feels perfectly fine.
zaphod@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 5h
It's also an issue of sitting in a box being shielded from the outsides. 30 km/h on a bicycle feels very different from 30 km/h in a metal box.
Frozengyro@lemmy.world · -9 pts · 1d
It would be painful to drive at that speed. Slowest you'll ever see in the US on public roads is generally 25mph/40kph even in residential or downtown areas. Even then most people are driving 30mph+, 48kph+
phant@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1d
40km/h has been the minimum speed limit on public roads in Aus for quite a while, and it's still the norm. 30 is pretty new and will probs take some time to adjust to.
jumping_redditor@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 21h
the US has some 15mph roads, and plentiful 20 mph residential roads
Frozengyro@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 20h
I have seen them, but it's extremely rare in my area. Maybe campgrounds and parking lots, but that's it.
jumping_redditor@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 20h
in my city all unlabeled roads are 20mph
Frozengyro@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 19h
Interesting, I've traveled a decent portion of the US, but yet to see that.
vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de · -13 pts · 1d
it is extremely hard to drive at 30 kmh. The car at its lowest power still wants to exceed 30, so it's accelerator, regen, accelerator, regen.... very jerky ride
hikaru755@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 1d
Is... there a /s missing here? Because if not, that sounds like an issue with your car to be honest. I've never driven a car that had an issue keeping 30 steadily
chris@l.roofo.cc · 9 pts · 1d
I just set my cruise control to 30 kph and cruise along. No jerkiness. Just sometimes people riding my ass that can't do 30 apparently.
vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de · 0 pts · 1d
i don't have cruise control
chris@l.roofo.cc · 3 pts · 1d
My foot works as well.
vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 1d
see my other comments...
raze2012@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1d
There's always a few people in speed limit conversations outing themselves. Do they lack the concept of riding on your breaks? How do they navigate a parking lot where you're very likely limited to 15kph?
vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de · -2 pts · 1d
i can't ride my breaks, as soon as I touch the brake pedal, a minimum amount of regen immediately activates. I could drive very easily at 30 with my old manual petrol car. I'm not a (complete) idiot.
edit: it's a chinese car. Their minimum is 40. s40? easy. 30? hell
Eheran@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 23h
So according to your other comments this is a problem with your Chinese car simply being shit at driving slow? And you know that based on experience with your previous car? What exactly is the comment supposed to tell us? While I still find it unrealistic that you can not simply drive slower with that car, even if I accept that we know it is specifically an issue with that car. Who else drives such a shit car? Will they update their car to allow smooth slow driving? Who knows, but the legislature sure should not care about such nonsense when lowering the speed limit to make spaces saver.
vorpuni@tarte.nuage-libre.fr · 21 pts · 1d
Good. It's crazy it was that high. 50 km/h is already very fast for a small street.
univers3man@piefed.world · 7 pts · 1d
No more Isekai truck-kun
fireweed@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 23h
Sidewalks are quite rare outside major corridors in space-constrained Japan (you're often lucky to get so much as a gutter or a hint of a shoulder to walk/cycle on), so this is an overdue move indeed.
Pictured below is a pretty normal street width/layout in both rural and urban Japan, and the street I lived on was about 30-50% narrower than even this, and had high walls on either side (zero setbacks).
SippyCup@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 22h
You know I couldn't imagine going 40 miles an hour down that road but I'm sure people do
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 7 pts · 20h
My carbrain seeing the title: Wtf, 30 for normal residential areas is a bit TOO low, we have 50 in most of Europe and that's just fine
My carbrain after seeing the photo: Nah this would be 20 in my country and in the vicinity of pedestrians, at pedestrian speed. AKA you'd definitely see one of these signs.
It's wild they allowed 60 on streets like this in the first place. That must feel like street racing going down this narrow alley. I was sort of expecting a regular street with a sidewalk upon seeing the title and the fact that it used to be 60.
Danquebec@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 12h
I'm assuming that it had stayed so high for so long precisely because almost everyode was driving well under the speed limit.
I hope so.
SirLeToet@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 16h
In the Netherlands cities are going to 30kmh anywhere cars come in contact with other traffic participants.
In the Netherlands those rural looking roads are up to 80kmh, up to 100 in Germany, 90 in Belgium.
teuniac_@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 5h
It's going to 30km/h (20mph) in many more countries now as a result of the Stockholm Declaration on Road Safety in 2020 (later endorsed by the UN) which puts a lot of emphasis on specifically 20lm/h speed limits. In the UK there is a big push for 20mph; in Wales most roads have been made 20mph.
There are still 3,558 pedestrian deaths per year in the EU, while there are 7,080 per year in the US.
The Stockholm Declaration aims for 50% fewer road deaths in 2030 compared to 2020.
A pedestrian hit at 30 km/h has about a 90% chance of surviving, but at 50 km/h, survival drops to about 20%. So while I get the appeal of driving fast, I think it's a very reasonable measure. 1000s of deaths per year to shave minutes off arrival times is not acceptable.
Source: am cycling campaigner in the UK
adarza@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 16h
yikes. it's 60kph now on a street like that? half that seems far more reasonable, even without giant trucks and suv on the streets.
BigBrainBrett2517@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 15h
Yeah but it's Japan. So, in my experience at least, if driers can see pedestrians they're not driving that fast at all. It would be dishonourable 😄 but seriously, they're driving carefully.
Jagarico@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 12h
Just passed my driving test. You're legally obligated to drive bellow 10 km/h or stop completely if there are pedestrians on roads like this.
BigBrainBrett2517@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 5h
There we have it, everyone!
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 15 pts · 19h
30 km/hr means people can legally drive EV autocycles on roads.
No, the aspect ratio is correct.
SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 19h
?
they can already, there is no "minimal max speed" limit
titanicx@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 15h
Depends the jurisdiction. In many places in the US there is a minimum speed to prevent traffic from bottlenecking.
Shayeta@feddit.org · 2 pts · 14h
What does US have to do with this?
SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 6h
In residential roads?
HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org · 9 pts · 1d
With 20 MPH (32 km/h), this is also becoming more and more standard in residential areas in the UK.
And the resulting massive drop in numbers of fatal accidents speaks for itself.
farmgineer@nord.pub · 7 pts · 1d
I thought it already went into effect. People in the Japanese countryside often drive like dickheads.
Sv443@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 1d
idk why people writing "kilos per hour" pisses me off so much. 1000 what per hour? Surely any other letter makes more sense to remove than the actual unit??
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
Eheran@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 23h
That's the USA for you, they have MPH so no way they use something as serious as km/h, gotta USify that.
ramble81@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 23h
Yes because when talking about cars I’m sure he was referring to 1000 kilograms per hour. Use your skills of inference.
Sv443@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 20h
you must've missed the "idk why" part of my comment
HubertManne@piefed.social · 6 pts · 1d
certainly will make bikes competitive.
Donebrach@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
Sounds like the isekai levels have gotten too high.
Bieren@lemmy.today · 5 pts · 23h
In the us we just raise the speed limit to 65 mph in school zones and give everyone a lifted blacked out f250.
remon@ani.social · 5 pts · 1d
I'm not sure ... will there still be enough people getting isekai'd after this change? Other worlds might run low on personnel ...
pirateKaiser@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 15h
You don't need speed to kill on the road.
Source: konosuba
john_t@feddit.fr · 3 pts · 19h
I guess it will reduce noise pollution a lot too.
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · -9 pts · 1d
I can almost run that fast. Now lower it to 20, and we might not really need them!
Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 10 pts · 1d
Are you an Olympic athlete?
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 1d
I mean, I can run about 20 KM/h for a short while at least. I was running after a bike, and the guy was measuring the speed on it.
It was an electric bike and he was going slow, but I can do 20 KM/h at least.
Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 21h
You should run competitively, I can maybe just hit that speed if I do an intense sprint