Japan is hunting down drunk cyclists, taking away their driver’s licenses and tightening regulations

Almost 900 cyclists have had their driving licenses revoked not for committing an infraction with their cars but for being caught pedaling on their bicycles under the influence of alcohol. This is the consequence of the strict measures adopted by Japan to curb bicycle accidents.

In 2023, there were more than 72,000 bicycle-related accidents in Japan, a figure that accounts for no less than 20% of all traffic accidents that occurred across the country. A genuine road safety problem that the Japanese authorities have decided to tackle by tightening the rules.

Until now, cyclists were only subjected to breathalyzer tests if they showed obvious symptoms of riding under the influence of alcohol. Nevertheless, 4,500 cyclists were detected between November 2024 and June 2025 in conditions unfit for pedaling in a country where there is no gathering without beer or sake.

Therefore, the Japanese authorities have decided to address the problem with new, stricter regulations, starting with the limitation of the allowed blood alcohol content, which reduces the threshold to 0.15 milliliters and generalizes controls for cyclists, whether or not they show symptoms of drunken driving. This has resulted in, in just one year since the new laws came into effect, 900 cyclists being caught violating this limit.

These cyclists have been penalized with the revocation of their driving licenses, as the new legislation assumes that anyone who rides a bicycle while drunk will not hesitate to do so in a car, potentially posing an even greater risk to road safety, which has been reflected in a significant increase in the number of licenses revoked compared to previous years.

In addition to the revocation of their licenses, cyclists face penalties that can reach up to 500,000 yen, about 2,700 euros at the current exchange rate, and in the most serious cases, even prison sentences of up to 3 years.

Furthermore, a new tightening of the rules is expected for the coming year to establish penalties for those cyclists who, for example, ride their bikes with an umbrella in hand, use a mobile phone, run red lights, or fail to use lights during nighttime riding.