So, between tadoku.org, simplified news websites, and watanoc.com I do article reading lessons often with students. And sometimes interesting things come up.
Recently I used this えほん https://tadoku.org/japanese/book/5277/ with a student and on the 3rd page there was this interesting illustration of what was in ママさん’s pocketbook.
What particularly stood out to me was the thing that looks like a driver’s license but says…
“自転車免許証”
I had to check that my eyes were alright for a second. A 運転免許証 or 自動車免許証 (driver’s license), now that is normal. But a “bicycle license”? What’s that about?
Turns out that it has become a thing.
Back in my Japan days (2002-2006) there was no such thing (or at least it wasn’t required).
Naturally, I was curious about the license and if everyone needs one in Japan now. So I googled “自転車免許 必要性 ”
And found this informative wikipedia article on it.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%87%AA%E8%BB%A2%E8%BB%8A%E5%85%8D%E8%A8%B1%E8%A8%BC
It is not a Japan-wide system. And it seems that each municipality (自治体） that does call for the license has its own setup for it.
