While there is a reasonably sophisticated traffic plan, the volume of traffic at any time other than the dead of night is so great that the only way to make deliveries with any speed is on two wheels. This goes for everyone - the services like food and catering as well as office deliveries and personal business transport.
In this respect, the situation is very like that in Europe for 15 years after the war, except that in Europe the widespread use of working motorcycles had more to do with lack of funds than true utility. In Japan, in 1990, the fact is that in all but the most rural towns, there is no point in a small business buying a van as they might do in the UK. It is illegal to operate a car or van unless you have an off-street parking space for it - which makes vans very expensive.
In response to this situation, all the motorcycle companies produce a range of purpose built commercial bikes, and a thriving industry has grown up selling bolt on racks and carriers of an amazing variety to take advantage of the last bit of load carrying capacity.
These working bikes fall into two categories - the Honda Cub and similar stepthrus from other firms, and the larger spine framed bikes like the CG125 and Suzuki 100. There are an equal number of two and four strokes including a Suzuki based on the old B120. Bikes of under 250cc don’t have to take the rigorous Japanese MOT. Large bikes of over ten years age have to take the MOT once a year rather than once every other year. Which means that CB77s and the like are rarer than you'd expect.
In design terms, the Japanese working bike seems to have reached an impasse. The peak of design development seems to have occurred about 20 years ago, since when very few major changes have been made in any of the current models. This has kept prices down and made for enviable continuity in spares availability.
These bikes are destined to drive about under layers of racks, boxes, screens and so on, coated in filth and cleaned or checked but seldom. Their build quality has to be quite high and the design understressed by a factor of 50%. Chains are enclosed, dampers sealed for life and about the only piece of maintenance necessary is keeping the oil topped up.
Rust merrily chews away at the rims, frame and other bits, but there is sufficient metal thickness to keep it fed for the bike's entire life, at the end of which the structure still has surprising strength despite looking as if the moths have been at it. Most of these machines go to the scrapheap with the majority of their original parts.
The engines would be easily recognisable to most British riders of the early ‘70s. There is the evergreen Cub engine, now sporting an electric starter but otherwise more or less unchanged. The CB125 twin, which first appeared in the UK in the wild days before restriction to 12hp, which can trace its life back to the sixties. The Suzuki 90 two stroke which dates from the ‘60s as well as numerous other living fossils that never made it to Europe.
All these motors are in a fairly feeble state of tune to prolong their lives - tiny carbs and whisper quiet exhausts combine to ensure that no more air enters or escapes than is necessary. This makes sense, as these machines will rarely exceed 30mph in town, but need plenty of torque to pull away under colossal loads.
An honourable mention must be given to the Welby bike, which only fails to be a motorbike because it doesn’t have an engine. In all other respects, these enormous pushbikes, used by market traders everywhere, are the same as motorbikes they're as big, as heavy and in most areas as useful in traffic. They appear to be made of offcuts from the Sydney Harbour bridge. Honda market a bolt-on engine kit which hardly seems necessary, as once you have pedalled these behemoths up to speed, they have the same kinetic energy as a train and are as hard to stop.
Working bikes make up the majority of domestic motorcycle sales in Japan, even though nobody would be seen dead on one as private transport. They are the exclusive tool of the worker and small business, and perform daily with extraordinary reliability. Slow and ugly, they represent a kind of pragmatic approach to motorcycle design that has long since disappeared in Europe.
There is a second class of small bike in Japan - the mopeds. Into this category I will put all the 50cc fashion scooters, some of which, like the Suzuki Love and Yamaha Jog, are becoming popular in the UK, as well as larger versions like the 125 and 250 Freeway, and the extraordinary Honda Fusion, a stepthru as big as a Goldwing with the biggest seat I have ever seen.
These machines are particularly popular among young people here. They are very cheap, clean and exempt from the MOT. Their service life tends to be about three years - they receive no maintenance as a rule, and are regarded as a disposable product, to be thrown away when they get too scruffy. They are the next step up from a bicycle and represent a real alternative to public transport. They are expected to stay in the gutter and not venture out into the main carriageway, but unlike bicycles, they are not allowed onto the pavement.
The insurance premiums for big bikes in Japan make Norwich Union premiums in the UK seem like a real bargain. There is a 750cc limit, mandatory training and a couple of tests for riding bikes over 400cc. These factors means that hot 400 fours are all the rage, with bikes like the FZR400 and GSX400, and even a 400cc version of the SRX600, ruling the roads.
Among these is the Honda CB-1, a typical example with a DOHC water-cooled four pot, 398cc motor, cast aluminium frame and every trick accessory known to the Japanese. One glance at these specials and you’re hooked - the detailing is superb and the standard of finish, when new, makes the Hesketh look like a CZ.
As a poseur’s tool, these bikes have overcome their power limitation to a large extent. Proof of this is that few owners add any modifications at all, except for a 4-1 exhaust, although now that the latest bikes have flash stainless steel exhausts this is becoming less common.
There is also a strange classic movement. Owners of big singles like the XBR and SR whose sense of style is firmly retrograde. With a curious nostalgia for the British motorcycle scene of the forties and fifties, they bolt on alloy guards, complete with naff looking perforated stays, alloy tanks (often with Norton or Matchless logo), hump seats, et al. The rider dons his Belstaff and pee-pot helmet with goggles, and thumps off on Sunday afternoon to live out his fantasy. This scene is at a peak at the moment, the next step up is a Tiger Cub for three grand or something decent like an A10 for around £30,000!
Apart from the classics, the concept of secondhand is one they have difficulty with here. The idea of buying something that has previously been owned by someone else, and a stranger to boot, is not one that rests easy with the status conscious Japanese. That said, the young still encounter the same economic problems as the rest of us - it's just that there are fewer places to advertise. Most people feel better buying new, even if it means finance. Land prices and appalling rent levels mean that people tend to live with their parents far longer than in spacious Britain. If they work for a large company they have a job for life, so HP companies smile on them accordingly.
For the foreigner visiting Japan for a few weeks, it’s not worth trying to get about on two wheels as the insurance costs on top of the bike hire charge would be fairly hefty. Buying something under 250cc would not be too expensive, something for around a £100 in the back pages of the English language newspapers would be a good bet (a Honda 125 twin, for instance).
The speed limit is 60km/h in urban areas, 40km/h in mid-city. On the toll paying expressways you can rip along at a heady 100km/h (62.5mph), but you can’t carry a passenger or ride anything under 125cc. They drive on the left here, just like in the UK, but the question of priority is not very clear as cyclists are not subjected to any laws and can do pretty much as they like.
Drink driving is not recommended. The police set up a road block late at night and smell the breath of all the drivers as they filter through. If they suspect alcohol, the driver's breathalysed with a huge machine that sits in the boot of the police car and analyses everything in your breath. Fines are five times those in the UK.
Incidentally, foreigners on an International driver's licence can only ride 125s, and even if you hold a full bike licence in the UK, you will still have to take a bike test to ride anything bigger. All in all, if you want to ride in Japan, it can be done, but bearing in mind the expense, the hassle (you have to fill in a form and attend in person to do anything in Japan), and the dense traffic in the cities, it would be best to stay here a while before deciding to buy.
Paul Calloman