From April 4st, helmets will be mandatory for everyone who rides a bicycle.

Bicycle shops in Tokyo are seeing a surge in helmet purchases and phone inquiries.

In addition, companies that jointly develop "shared bicycles" that use bicycles are continuing to search for ways to deal with the wearing of helmets.

Bicycle specialty store expanded helmet corner

Bicycle shops in Tokyo's Minato Ward have been receiving a series of inquiries from people who want to buy helmets since the beginning of this month, especially those in their 40s to 80s.

For this reason, we expanded the helmet section of the store, which was mostly for children, and lined up about 20 new helmets for adults.

Helmets with simple black designs are particularly popular and sell well, but some of the products on the wall are sold out, and the trend of shortage continues.

According to the store, many people come to look for a casual helmet that looks like a hat, but due to the rapid increase in demand, it is not possible to purchase from the manufacturer, so it is difficult to get it.

According to the "Cycle Olympics" that we operate, the number of helmets sold at more than 30 stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area was 3,1 from March 29 to 1260, about 36 times the same period last year.

A woman in her 40s said, "I use my bicycle for shopping, but I thought it would be better to wear it when I was told that I was obliged to make an effort, so I came looking for it. I want a light, sturdy and cute color."

Kenji Masawa, the store manager, says, "Almost every day, I am surprised that the number of helmet inquiries and sales has increased and the number of items is gone.

Hygiene and size "Share cycle" continues to search for support

Companies that jointly use bicycles are continuing to search for ways to deal with helmet wearing.

According to a company that develops "share bicycles" at more than 6200,7 locations nationwide, mainly at stations and commercial facilities in Tokyo, the number of users has continued to increase since 2016, seven years ago when the service was launched, and about 200 million members are using it for business and shopping.

In addition to informing users on the app and website that wearing a helmet will be mandatory after the end of the day, we encourage users to wear helmets for safety, but we leave the decision to the individual.

The company is considering renting out helmets in bicycle parking spaces, but this has not been possible at this time due to hygiene concerns caused by many people using the same helmet and issues such as different helmet sizes depending on the user.

A man in his 2s who uses it about twice a week for work said, "I would like to think about what to actually do by looking at the surroundings, and since helmets are not portable, I would like them to leave them if possible."

Kozue Ozaki of Open Street said, "It is difficult for business operators to tell them to wear helmets because they are obliged to make efforts, so we would like to disseminate information so that the culture of wearing helmets takes root."

Casualties: 6,8140, about 9% without helmets

According to the National Police Agency, 1 people died in bicycle riding accidents nationwide last year, of which 339 were fatally wounded to the head.

A total of 179,6 people died and were injured, of which more than 8140% were not wearing helmets.

The challenge is the low rate of elderly wearing.

Looking at
the wearing rate by age group, 1.9% were among those aged 27 to 9 years old, the highest
at 10.15% in their teens, 8.20% in their 5s, 8.30% in their 8s, 2.40%



in their 10s, and 2.50% in their 9s.
Only 2.65% of people aged 3 and over.

The low rate of wearing by adults in their 6s and older, especially the elderly, has become an issue.

The proportion of people killed or injured in accidents while riding a bicycle was about 20.2 times higher than when they were not wearing a helmet.

The National Police Agency hopes to minimize the damage caused by accidents by making it a habit to wear helmets.