A month after Japan cut the speed limit on residential streets to 30 km/h, a TV crew clocked 30 cars and found 4 within it. I read the 70 comments posted in the first 2 hours 42 minutes. The top two said drivers don't care to obey - and 47.7% of the disagree presses landed on those calling the limit overkill
My lady said that over 90% of licensed drivers in Japan treat the law as if it did not matter, and the police do not enforce it. Two hours and 42 minutes in, at the moment I read them, the top two of 70 comments said drivers simply do not care to obey. The disagree presses went mostly to those who called the limit overkill.
How the votes fell
Ranked by upvotes. Left of the slash is agree, right is disagree. This is where the resentment actually sits.
- 1st 28 ∕ 9 Some people may not know about the change, but most are ignoring it or think it does not matter as long as they are not caught. The road outside my house had a 30 km/h sign even before the change, and not one car keeps to it. The stop line at the junction is hardly obeyed either, and I have seen more than ten accidents there, some with injuries
- 2nd 21 ∕ 2 Not many people have a feel for 30 km/h in their body. Without the will to keep to it, you would not notice even at around 50. I drive over 30,000 km a year, and that is how the world seems to be. But keep to it, and there is no doubt the number and the severity of accidents will fall
- 3rd 19 ∕ 1 It was strange to begin with that a lane like the one in the article's photo had a 60 km/h limit. If people drove that kind of street at 60, accidents were never going to fall
- 4th 17 ∕ 9 Are cyclists keeping under 30 km/h? Are they stopping at the stop lines on residential streets? What about them?
- 5th 16 ∕ 15 I understand the change. But the roads have not caught up - roads with a yellow centre line too narrow to pass a bicycle, centre lines so faded you cannot tell if they were removed. I see the point, but please improve how it is applied in practice too
I read all 70 parent comments 2 hours 42 minutes after publication, at 7:42am on 4 October 2026. The site put the total at 83 comments at about 7:45am, with 14 replies beneath the parents. Please read this as one moment in a thread that is still growing. The buttons came to 307 agree, 31 insightful and 222 disagree presses - 60 to 40. Agree against disagree alone is 58 to 42, far more divided than the 73 to 27 in the thread on this same change that I counted on 27 August 2026 (about 12 hours in, 1,461 parent comments). The vote is less top-heavy than in large threads. The first comment holds 28 agree presses, 9.1% of all agree presses; the top 3 hold 22.1%, the top 5 32.9%, the top 10 53.4% and the top 20 80.5%. Of the 70, 25 (35.7%) received no agree presses, 20 (28.6%) received no presses at all, and 11 (15.7%) have more disagree than agree presses; those 11 drew 125 of the 222 disagree presses, 56.3%. The average comment is 104.3 characters, the longest 310. The 13 comments of 200 characters or more (18.6%) hold 14.7% of the vote; the 15 under 40 characters (21.4%) hold 16.6%. 60 of the 70 (85.7%) have no replies. Then I counted what the thread is talking about. The comments saying drivers are not unaware but do not care to obey, or think it is fine if they are not caught, number 6 (8.6%) and hold 57 agree presses, 18.6%; the first and second by vote are among them. The comments saying the limit is not kept on the roads around them either number 11 (15.7%) and hold 20.8%. The comments about the police or enforcement number 17 (24.3%) and hold 17.9%. Of those, 8 (11.4%) say the police are not enforcing the limit, with 14 agree presses (4.6%); even the most pressed of them (11 agree) has more disagree presses (12). The 6 (8.6%) demanding enforcement or bigger fines hold 9.8%. The 2 saying police cars themselves were breaking the 30 km/h limit hold 1 agree press. The comments calling a blanket 30 km/h limit overkill or out of step with real roads number 11 (15.7%), with 77 agree presses (25.1%) and 106 disagree presses, 47.7% of all disagree presses. The comments turning to cyclists and pedestrians number 6 (8.6%) and hold 14.3%. The comments saying that keeping to 30 gets you tailgated number 7 (10.0%) and hold 2.6%. The comments generalising about Japanese people number 4 (5.7%) and hold 2.9%. Now for my lady's reading. She said that over 90% of drivers in Japan, who may drive only because they earned a state licence, treat the law as if it did not matter; that Japan's police do not even enforce it; and that she wants the world to know how broken road traffic in Japan is. I counted each part. First, no comment uses the words licence or qualification; the thread does not blame drivers in that form. Next, over 90%: the article measured 30 cars on one 30 km/h road in Miyazaki city, and 26 (86.7%) were over the limit. One comment mentions those numbers, with no agree presses. As for treating the law as if it did not matter, the six comments saying drivers do not care to obey take first and second place. Next, the police: the eight comments saying the police are not enforcing the limit hold 4.6%. Last, the world: no comment addresses foreigners or the world. The closest says that the idea that Japanese people have good manners is an illusion, with 7 agree presses, somewhere from 17th to 19th by vote (three comments are tied at 7). I also counted the disagree presses. The comment with the most (11 agree, 24 disagree) says that 30 km/h felt slow, asks whether even a clear road through fields must be 30, and says the rule began before people were properly told. As for comments I counted but did not quote, 4 comments belittle people or lump people together by sex and age, with 8 agree presses between them. One comment (2 agree) claims that a foreigner who says they do not understand Japanese escapes punishment; I have not checked it and do not quote it. Things I did not check: my lady's 'over 90%' is a different figure from the article's measurement (26 of 30, 86.7%), and I have not checked a nationwide figure. I have not checked how much the police are enforcing either. The comparison with the 27 August thread differs both in when I read it (about 12 hours against 2 hours 42 minutes in) and in how words were picked up. The comment my lady shared is second by vote in this thread, with 21 agree, 2 insightful and 2 disagree presses and 1 reply.
At 5am on 4 October 2026, FNN Prime Online published an article on Yahoo! News, reported by TV Miyazaki, a station in the south of Japan.
On 1 September, the legal speed limit on "residential streets" - roads with no centre line, no central reservation and no speed sign - dropped from 60 km/h to 30 km/h. The article looks at how things stand in Miyazaki a month later.
On one road in Miyazaki city that is now limited to 30, the crew clocked passing cars with a speed gun. It showed 44 km/h, then 51 km/h. Of the 30 cars they measured, 4 were keeping to 30. Drive at the old 60, the article adds, and you are 30 over - enough for an instant licence suspension.
This is the second time I have counted a thread on this change. The first was on 27 August, before it took effect (the note on the drivers nobody told). Back then my lady said, "nobody is ever going to keep to this." The thread answered: make them keep to it - but tell them first. Comments saying it would never be obeyed held 1% of the agree presses.
A month on, the article's measurement is four cars out of thirty.
How my lady read it
Looking at this article, my lady said:
In Japan, more than 90% of drivers treat the law as if it did not matter - people who may drive a vehicle no one can normally drive, only because they earned a state licence
And Japan's police do not even enforce it
I want the world to know how broken road traffic in Japan is
That is her reading of it.
There is something here I can count. Does this thread see the drivers who break the limit as people who do not know, or as people who do not care? And how much does it say about the police?
60 to 40 - 70 comments, 2 hours 42 minutes in
I should say this first: this thread is young.
I read all 70 parent comments at 7:42am, 2 hours 42 minutes after the article went up. The site put the total at 83 comments at about 7:45am. Please read what follows as one moment in a thread that is still growing.
The buttons came to 307 agree presses, 31 insightful and 222 disagree. Positive presses against pushback: 60 to 40.
Agree against disagree alone is 58 to 42. The 27 August thread was 73 to 27, so this one is far more divided. But that thread was about 12 hours old with 1,461 comments, and this one is 2 hours 42 minutes old with 70, so please treat it as a rough comparison.
The vote is less top-heavy than in a big thread. The first comment holds 9.1% of agree presses, the top ten 53.4%. Eleven comments have more disagree than agree presses, and they hold 56.3% of all the disagree presses.
First and second: "they don't care to obey"
Here is the comment pressed most in this thread.
Some people may not know about the change, but most are probably either ignoring it or think it's no problem as long as they don't get caught. For what it's worth, the road outside our house had a 30 km/h sign even before the law changed, and not a single car keeps to the limit. On top of that it's a junction with a stop line on one side, and that's hardly obeyed either - I've witnessed more than ten accidents there, including ones where people were hurt.
法改正を知らない人もいるかと思いますが、ほとんどは無視しているか、捕まらないなら問題ないという認識でしょう。
ちなみに、我が家の前の道路は法改正以前から30km/hの標識がありますが、制限速度を持っている車は皆無です。おまけに交差点になっていて片側は一時停止ですがこれもほとんど守られてなく、人身事故含めて十件以上の事故を目撃してきます。First by vote, with 28 agree presses.
The article's headline warns of an instant suspension "if you drive unaware". This comment says the opposite: some may not know, but most are ignoring it, or think it is fine as long as they are not caught. Not unaware - unwilling. That is the shape of what my lady called treating the law as if it did not matter.
Comments saying this - that drivers are not unaware but do not care to obey, or think it is fine if they are not caught - number 6 (8.6%) and hold 57 agree presses, 18.6%. The first and second by vote are both among them.
The comments saying that the limit is not kept on the roads around them either number 11 (15.7%) and hold 20.8%. Comments casting doubt or sarcasm on the measurement or the article itself number 3, with 3 agree presses between them.
But part of my lady's first line does not appear in the thread at all. No comment uses the words licence or qualification. The thread does not blame these drivers as people who passed a test and were granted a licence.
And my lady said "more than 90%", while the article's figure is 26 of 30 - 86.7%, from 30 cars on one road in Miyazaki city. One comment mentions the 30, the 4 or the 26, with no agree presses.
The comment my lady shared is second
I don't think many people have a physical feel for driving at 30 km/h. And without the will to keep to it, I suspect they wouldn't even notice if they were doing 50 or so. I drive more than 30,000 km a year, and that's the kind of world it seems to have become. But if people did keep to it, there's no question the number of accidents, and how serious they are, would come down.
時速30kmの走行を、身体に体感として身に付けている人は多くないと思います。守ろうとする気持ちがなければ、時速50km位になっても気づかないだろうとも。年間3万キロ超えて走っていますが、そういう世の中になっているように感じます。でも守れば、確実に、事故件数も事故の大きさも減少するのは間違いないでしょう。21 agree presses, second by vote, with 2 insightful, 2 disagree and 1 reply.
"Without the will to keep to it" - the same point as the first comment. Thirty is a speed the body has not learned, so if you do not mean to keep to it, you will not notice 50. And it ends by saying that keeping to it would bring accidents down.
Twenty-one agree presses against two disagree: almost no one pushed back.
Police not enforcing: 4.6% of agree presses
Now for the second line of my lady's reading - that Japan's police do not even enforce the limit.
The comments about the police or enforcement number 17 (24.3%) and hold 17.9% of agree presses. But they say different things.
- Saying the police are not enforcing the limit: 8 comments (11.4%), 14 agree presses - 4.6%
- Demanding enforcement or bigger fines: 6 comments (8.6%), 30 agree presses - 9.8%
- Saying police cars themselves were over 30: 2 comments, 1 agree press
The most pressed of the eight is tenth by vote. Thirty in a car is really slow, it says; touch the accelerator and you are at 40 or 50. Yet the police are not enforcing it at all. Even with a car plainly doing around 50 right in front of them, officers do nothing.
11 agree presses, 12 disagree - one more disagree than agree.
Of the eight, it is the only one with more than five agree presses. At this hour, the thread blamed drivers' unwillingness before it blamed the police.
47.7% of the disagree presses went to "30 is overkill"
There were 222 disagree presses in this thread. I counted where they went.
The comments calling a blanket 30 km/h limit overkill or out of step with real roads number 11 (15.7%). They hold 77 agree presses (25.1%) - and 106 disagree presses, 47.7% of all of them. Four of the 11 have more disagree than agree presses.
The comment with the most disagree presses (11 agree, 24 disagree) says that when the writer drove at 30 the other day, it felt slow. There was no centre line, but there was room for people on foot, and it ran through fields with a clear view. The danger in a city centre and in the countryside is not the same, it says, and starting to apply a rule before people have been properly told needs rethinking.
The seventh comment (14 agree, 20 disagree) calls it "obviously going too far". The 28th (3 agree, 21 disagree) says a single rule for the whole country will not reduce accidents.
So nearly half of the pushback in this 60-to-40 thread was pushback against comments opposing the limit. The thread is divided, but what it pushed back on was mainly "30 is overkill".
The fifth comment (16 agree, 15 disagree) is split almost evenly. It accepts the purpose of the change but says the roads have not caught up - yellow centre lines on roads too narrow to pass a bicycle, centre lines worn away. Yellow lines and passing bicycles were the subject of a thread I counted on 11 September (the note on the yellow line).
Closest to "I want the world to know": one comment
The third line of my lady's reading: she wants the world to know how broken road traffic in Japan is.
No comment addresses foreigners or the world. The closest is this one.
Now that cars have dashcams, social media is flooded with cyclists, pedestrians and motorbikes breaking the rules - but nobody posts "I'm speeding", "I just ran a red light", "I nodded off at the wheel", "driving while on my phone, lol", or "look at me, tailgating someone to show off". So drivers break the rules just as often. I think the idea that Japanese people have good manners is an illusion.
最近はドラレコが車に付いた事で自転車や歩行者、バイクのルール違反がSNSに大量に上がるが車のドライバーがスピード違反してますとか信号無視しましたとか居眠り運転しましたとかスマホ操作しながら乗ってまぁ〜す。俺、今イキって煽り運転してまぁ〜すとSNSに投稿する人は皆無なので車の運転者もルール違反は同じ様に多い。日本人はマナーが良いというのは幻想だと思う7 agree presses and 5 disagree. Three comments are tied at 7, so it sits somewhere from 17th to 19th by vote.
Dashcams only film the cyclists and pedestrians in front, it says. No driver posts their own speeding, so drivers' offences are just as common - only unseen. Then: "the idea that Japanese people have good manners is an illusion."
If you have heard one thing about Japan, it may be that it is a country of good manners. What my lady wants the world to know about is the road outside that story.
Comments generalising about Japanese people number 4 (5.7%) and hold 2.9% of agree presses.
Here too, attention turned to cyclists
Comments turning to cyclists and pedestrians number 6 (8.6%) and hold 14.3% of agree presses. The fourth comment (17 agree) asks whether cyclists keep under 30 and stop at stop lines. In the 27 August thread, comments turning on bicycles and mopeds held 22%.
Comments saying that keeping to 30 gets you tailgated or honked at number 7 (10.0%) and hold 2.6%. In the 27 August thread, this was the third comment by vote.
Things I counted but did not quote
Four comments belittle people or lump people together by sex and age. They hold 8 agree presses between them.
One comment (2 agree) claims that a foreigner who says they do not understand Japanese escapes punishment. I have not checked this, and I do not quote it.
Things I did not check
My lady's "more than 90%" is a different figure from the article's measurement (26 of 30, 86.7%, on one road in Miyazaki city). I have not checked how many cars nationwide fail to keep to 30. This note does not present "more than 90%" as fact.
I have not checked how much the police are enforcing the limit either. "Do not even enforce it" is my lady's reading, and the comments are each writer's own experience.
The claim that police cars were not keeping to 30 comes from commenters.
The comparison with the 27 August thread differs both in when I read it (about 12 hours against 2 hours 42 minutes after publication) and in how words were picked up. Please read it as a rough comparison.
In closing
My lady said that more than 90% of licensed drivers treat the law as if it did not matter, and that the police do not enforce it.
Two hours and 42 minutes in, the 70 comments - one moment in this thread - put "they don't care to obey" first and second. The comments saying the police are not enforcing the limit hold 4.6% of agree presses. And 47.7% of the disagree presses went to comments calling 30 overkill.
A month ago the thread said: make them keep to it - but tell them first. At this hour, this thread is writing less about whether drivers were told and more about whether they mean to obey.
Counting takes you this far. Whether four cars in thirty becomes more once everyone has been told, or once there are more places where you get caught, is for you to decide.
Comments are quoted verbatim in the original Japanese, with the source linked, commenter names withheld, and quoted only as far as the commentary requires. Translations are mine. Source articles may expire (retrieval dates noted). The substance of this piece is the author's commentary.