2006/06/02
Glimpses of Japan vol.96（外国人から見た日本）
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Glimpses of Japan (アメリカ人から見た日本)
vol.96 Ticket Troubles
2006.6.2
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Yesterday private company traffic wardens commissioned by the police began
giving tickets to illegally parked vehicles across Japan. Just in Tokyo,
1,600 wardens patrolled the streets of 102 municipalities and 12 wards. The
wardens are civilians, some retired policemen, hired by 74 companies commissioned
by 270 of the country's 1,219 police stations.
Supposedly, this will free local police for other more important tasks. Since
I frequently see policemen sitting around in their police boxes doing nothing
more important than reading comic books or drinking tea, or standing in front
of police stations for hours watching people walk by, I'll believe the
"more important tasks" when I see some evidence of it. There have certainly
been plenty of cases of botched investigations over the last few years, and
recently it came to light that one of the highest profile unsolved murder cases
in recent history had not been investigated thoroughly, although the case officer
had filed false reports.
In any case, even the first day of the civilian/commercial traffic patrols
resulted in many cases of errors. In Nagoya, 54 of the hand-held data input
devices failed to work because of operator errors, and 30 patrollers in Shibuya
had to concede defeat because they couldn't use them properly. One pair of
wardens trying to ticket a motorcycle in Shinjuku spent 45 minutes for what
should have been a 10-minute job, finally requiring the help of a police officer
and another civilian warden…evidently because the input device's battery
failed. It hadn't been tested outside, it seems.
Thanks to a sharp-eyed colleague, I was able to watch an interesting episode
across the street from my office. A pair of traffic wardens started processing
a car parked in front of a small company. The driver came out and spoke with
them for a few minutes, and opened his trunk; he didn't seem to be doing anything
other than opening it, though, and after a while he opened the car's door, too.
The wardens moved off about 50 meters, and watched the driver, who stood by his
car watching them. This battle of patience ended when the wardens finally moved
off after five minutes or so, and the driver closed his trunk and went back
inside. The car had gone a few minutes later when I checked again.
I see that delivery companies are now forced to hire extra assistants for their
trucks, to stand by while deliveries are made. The extra cost will surely be
passed along to you and me, just like the costs of the civilian traffic wardens
will be.
From the news programs I watched, it seems that the people happiest with the new
law are the operators of parking lots. I imagine that the operators of towing
services will be pleased, too. More people may start using taxis, which may please
cab companies, but the drivers won't be able to leave their cabs for a quick bowl
of ramen any more, and will have to stay with their cabs or return to their company
for breaks.
Probably among the unhappiest are motorcycle riders like me. Except for one (almost
always full) motorbike parking lot in front of Shinagawa Station, and one that I
hear has opened in Roppongi, I don't know of any parking lots that allow motorcycles
to park. I've been refused many, many times when trying to park my bike in car
parking lots, including major hotel lots, even though I offered to pay the full
parking fee. I have been told that there are a few lots that accept motorcycles,
but I've only seen one, personally…and I get around a lot. The automated coin-operated
lots don't seem to work with bikes, probably because of their sensor arrangement.
So motorcyclists are liable to get tickets as soon as they step away from their bikes
even for a few minutes, but there's virtually nowhere they can park legally.
Like many of the laws and enforcement campaigns I've seen here, this one seems not
to have been planned very well. At least from the point of view of the taxpaying,
driving citizens' convenience, that is. From the viewpoint of police convenience,
it seems ideal.
I wonder what long-term effect it will have on vehicle sales, and on the incomes of
businesses that rely on customers who usually park briefly on the street near them.
I also wonder whether the next step will be to hire civilians to stand around on
corners and blow whistles when the traffic lights change, as the police have done
during every nationwide traffic safety campaign that I can remember.
-- Mike Lloret
Glimpses of Japan vol.96
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