What’s the most hated tourist service in Japan? If you held a vote, go-kart companies would win hands down. These “Mario Kart” style services annoy both native Japanese and foreign residents alike. So no one was surprised – or displeased – to find one of these companies was in trouble with the law. (Yes, again.)
A troubled legal history
The Mario Kart services rent go-karts to Japanese tourists. Operators guide them through an on-street tour of part of a major city, such as Tokyo. The gimmick plays on people’s adoration of Nintendo’s popular Mario Kart game series. In those games, in which characters from the Super Mario Bros. series go-kart race against each other.
(No, you can’t throw tortoise shells from these go-karts. That would, admittedly, be kinda cool.)
These companies have been controversial since their inception. One company, Street Kart, had to change its name from “MariCar” and stop lending Nintendo characters costumes after a series of lawsuits by the popular Japanese gaming company.
For our part, residents of Japan hate the karts. They’re loud. They’re ugly. And we’re all worried a bunch of first-time Japan drivers are gonna get someone killed.
That last concern’s a real possibility. In 2018 alone, customers of the company formerly known as MariCar racked up 50 accidents.
Driving without a license
The so-called Mario Karts made the headlines again this April. A foreign go-kart driver caused an accident in Tokyo’s Minato City, running into another car. It was the 25th such accident this year.
The accident sparked a police investigation. It turns out that the go-kart company based out of Ota City rented the car to this person and one other person even though they didn’t have valid international driver’s permits. (The company has gone unnamed in local reports.)
In conformance with the United Nations Convention on Road Traffic, tourists driving in Japan must have an international driver’s permit. They must acquire this from their home country before arriving in Japan. (Residents of Japan must obtain a local driver’s license or convert an existing license from their home country.)
The 40-something company says they checked if the two renters had international driver’s permits. However, they didn’t verify that the permits were valid.
An international driver’s permit is only valid if issued by a country that’s a signatory to the Geneva Conventions. There is usually a set procedure for obtaining one depending on your country of origin. For example, in the US, the Department of State authorizes only the American Automobile Association (AAA) to issue international driver’s permits for citizens.
Tokyo Police publish a list of Geneva Convention countries that business owners can use for reference. The operator failed to double-check against this list. That led police to file charges against him with prosecutors for renting a vehicle to unlicensed drivers.
Japan says: Crack down harder!
The Yahoo News! Japan comments section on this news had little good things to say about the karts.
One commenter said they wondered why people think it’s so easy to drive in Japan when it’s notoriously difficult to get a driver’s license here. In a comment with over 14,000 likes, they said, “They should prevent you from driving even with an international permit until you get several hours of practice in.”
Others said the service should be banned outright. “It’s odd in the first place to drive something that looks like it belongs in an amusement park on public roads,” one person wrote.
One of Yahoo! News JP’s expert commentators, sustainability consultant Ando Mitsunobu, argued that Japan too often “puts all of the responsibility for social responsibility on business owners.” He argued that, in this case, the government should strengthen applicable laws and regulations.
“They may be popular,” Ando wrote, “but that’s no excuse to let people run riot on public streets.”
Frankly, I wouldn’t lose any sleep if authorities regulated them out of business entirely. Go-karts belong on a silly little circular track – not on the crowded streets of Tokyo.
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Sources
公道「カート」業者摘発、無免許外国人に貸した疑い 観光客に人気. Asahi Digital
小型カートレンタル会社責任者 道路交通法違反容疑で書類送検. NHK News
Driving in Japan. U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Japan
