Tokyo's backstreets have almost no illegal parking. Here's why it works

In Akihabara and Kanda, packed with shops and bars, the narrow streets had no illegally parked cars. Japan's road death rate is 42% of South Korea's.

13 Nov 2026, 03:061 min read

A narrow shopping street in Tokyo's Akihabara district with shops on both sides and no cars parked along the roadside. — Image: 동아일보

Picture Akihabara, Tokyo's famous anime hotspot in Chiyoda ward. Shops selling DVDs, figures and character goods are crammed side by side, and tourists flood in. Yet on October 28, a street about 20 metres wide had not a single illegally parked car.

The nearby Kanda station area, full of offices, restaurants and bars, looked the same. The few vehicles stopped at the roadside were mostly work trucks delivering goods to shops, not private cars.

The secret is small car parks. Tiny "micro" lots are tucked into the backstreets, with eight of them within 100 metres in one spot.

Why it matters

The rules behind it are old. Since 1962, Japan's garage certificate law has required car buyers to prove they have an off-street parking space before registering a vehicle. In 2006, a revised Road Traffic Act brought in private parking monitors who issue illegal-parking notices.

The safety gap is striking too. Last year Japan had 2.06 road deaths per 100,000 people, against 4.9 in South Korea, or 42.0% of the Korean figure.

#tokyo#illegal parking#akihabara#road safety#japan#south korea

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