Blue tickets and hansokukin
Japanese traffic fines, read from the statutes
What the ticket in your hand actually is, what it costs, and by when. Every figure comes from the statutes themselves.
- Transcribed from the statutes
- Source and period on every table
- No ads, no analytics
The two tickets
Blue ticket, red ticket — the colour IS the legal category
aokippu 青切符 (blue)
hansokukin 反則金
Road Traffic Act, Art. 125 onward (the traffic-violation notification system)
An administrative track. Pay the stated amount within the deadline and no prosecution follows. It is not a criminal record.
akakippu 赤切符 (red)
bakkin 罰金
Road Traffic Act, Chapter 8 (penal provisions)
A criminal track. A court sets the amount within the statutory range. There is no fixed schedule to read it off.
This is not a "bakkin"
bakkin 罰金hansokukin 反則金 / hōchi-ihankin 放置違反金
罰金 (bakkin) is the criminal-law word. What you pay on a blue ticket is 反則金 (hansokukin); what a vehicle's registered user pays for an abandoned-parking case is 放置違反金 (hōchi-ihankin). Neither is a bakkin. The searched word is the wrong register, and this page names the one that actually applies.
Three numbers
A blue ticket comes down to three numbers
What you pay, what it scores, and by when. Each of the three is set by a different instrument.
Hansokukin (the notice amount)
¥9,000
under 15 km/h over
Base demerit points
1 point
8 km/h over the limit
Payment after notification
10 days
counted from the day after the written notification (tsūkoku)
The procedure
From citation to payment
The roadside citation, the written notification, and the payment. Which deadline applies depends on where in that sequence you are.
Citation
You are cited at the roadside. The provisional-payment clock starts the day after this.
Notification
A written notification follows. The payment clock starts the day after that one.
Payment
Pay the full amount within the deadline. Instalments are not allowed.
If you were handed one
If you were handed a blue ticket
Find the conduct category printed on the notice
Work out which of the two deadlines you are under
Check the amount and the points in their own separate tables
Calculators
Two calculators
Both do one thing: look up the statutory table from what you enter. Neither decides anything about your case.
Calculator
Speeding fine and points calculator
Road type, vehicle class, the limit and your measured speed — and the two tables are looked up separately.
Calculator
Payment deadline calculator
Two deadlines: 10 days from the notification, and 7 days for provisional payment from the citation. Different anchors, so two fields.
Amendment pending
Cabinet Order Art. 11's default speed limit is being rewritten. From the date below, the default splits by road class.
- The figures on this page are computed under
- 道路交通法施行令, consolidation in force 2026-05-21 — 第十一条, BEFORE the 2026-09-01 rewrite
- In force from
- 1 September 2026
道路交通法施行令 第十一条
Start here
What this site is for
If you have just been handed a slip of paper in Japan and cannot read most of it, this site exists to answer three questions: what it is, what it costs, and by when.
Every figure here is transcribed from the primary legislation — the Road Traffic Act and the Cabinet Order made under it — and every table carries the instrument it came from and the period it was in force. Nothing is quoted from a secondary source, and nothing is estimated.
This English version is a full translation of the same claims as the Japanese one, not a summary of them. It makes no additional claims either: in particular, nothing here is specific to foreign licences or visiting drivers, because no material this site read carries rules of that kind.
Search words and statutory words
What people search
What the instrument says
- Parking fineHansokukin / abandoned-parking chargeRoad Traffic Act Art. 125 ff. / Art. 51-4
- Violation pointsBase points / additional pointsCabinet Order App. Table 2
- Blue ticketNotification of a traffic violationRoad Traffic Act Art. 126
- Red ticketReferral as a criminal case (bakkin / karyo)Road Traffic Act Art. 118
Both words are used on this site: the searched one so the page can be found, the statutory one so the register is named correctly. A popular word is never presented as the statute's own.
The shape of the system
Four consequences, and they do not travel together
The most useful thing to understand early is that a Japanese traffic violation does not produce one consequence. It can produce four, and they are set by different instruments.
There is the hansokukin, the administrative sum a driver pays under the notification system. There is the bakkin, a criminal fine set by a court within a statutory range. There is the abandoned-parking charge, which is billed to a vehicle's registered user rather than to any driver. And there are demerit points, which attach to a licence independently of all three.
They do not move as a block. Paying the money does not settle the points. Having no notice sum to pay does not mean no points attach. And the register you are in decides who pays, what the deadline is, and whether a court is involved at all.
The four registers
Hansokukin
Road Traffic Act Art. 125 ff. / Cabinet Order App. Table 6
Paid by the driver who was cited.
Bakkin / karyo
Road Traffic Act Art. 118 / Penal Code Art. 15
Imposed by a court. A criminal proceeding.
Abandoned-parking charge
Road Traffic Act Art. 51-4 / Cabinet Order App. Table 1
Billed to the vehicle's registered user, not to a driver.
Base demerit points
Cabinet Order App. Table 2, part 1
Attach to the licence. Not money at all.
Each is set by a different instrument, each is owed by a different person, and only one of the four attaches to a licence. Every table on this site names the instrument its figures came from.
How to read the figures
What "transcribed, not signed off" means
Every value on this site carries a research status. It has been transcribed from the legislation and checked against the instrument, but it has not been signed off by the reviewer of record. That notice appears with the figures rather than buried on a policy page, because it is a fact about the numbers themselves.
This site also states, in a number of places, what it does NOT model — alcohol classification, licence suspension predictions, expressway mainline defaults, and where to physically pay among them. Those statements are content, not apologies: each one names an instrument or a boundary rather than claiming the law is silent.
For your own case, the notice you were given and the office named on it are the authority. Nothing here is legal advice.
What this system does not cover
What this site does not answer, and why
These are content, not gaps. Each is a bounded statement that a NAMED instrument does not contain something — never a claim that "the law is silent".
Death and injury by driving is a different Act
The Act on Punishment of Acts Causing Death or Injury by Driving was amended by the same Act that amended the Road Traffic Act (Act No. 52 of 2026), but its offences and penalties are its own. This site has not transcribed them. A case involving death or injury is outside this calculator.
- 自動車運転死傷行為処罰法, in force 2026-07-21
The payload's own note, verbatim (an instrument name in 【 】 is this site's)
自動車運転死傷行為処罰法 (death/injury-by-driving offences) is vendored in the corpus and was amended by the SAME act that amended 道路交通法 on 2026-07-21 (令和八年法律第五十二号) — but its own offence/penalty structure is a SEPARATE instrument and is not transcribed into this payload.
The summary-trial procedure is a different Act
The Summary Trial Procedure Act for traffic cases governs HOW a minor traffic case is disposed of. It is procedural and carries no amount of its own, so it is not modelled here. Its ceiling and this offence's own ceiling are two different figures.
- 交通事件即決裁判手続法, in force 2026-05-21
The payload's own note, verbatim (an instrument name in 【 】 is this site's)
交通事件即決裁判手続法 (the summary-trial PROCEDURE for minor traffic offences) is vendored — procedural, carries no rate figure of its own, and is not modelled here.
Minimum speeds are not transcribed
【道路交通法施行令】Minimum speeds are set by Cabinet Order Art. 27. Arts. 11 and 12 only point at it ("the next Article" / "the preceding Article"); the figure itself is not within what this site transcribed. It was read, and not taken.
- 道路交通法施行令 (Cabinet Order No. 270 of 1960), 第二十七条 — consolidation in force 2026-05-21
The payload's own note, verbatim (an instrument name in 【 】 is this site's)
最低速度 (minimum speed, expressway mainline — 第二十七条 and neighbours, referenced in passing by 第十一条/第十二条's own cross-references) is a separate figure this fixture did not extract.
Not every Chapter 8 article is covered
【道路交通法】Chapter 8 of the Road Traffic Act (Arts. 117–122) holds more articles than the ones this site joined to the hansokukin ceilings. Only the articles that Appended Table 2's own rows name are transcribed. Arts. 117 and 122, and Arts. 118-2 and 118-3, are referenced by no ceiling row and are not transcribed.
- 道路交通法 (Act No. 105 of 1960), 第八章 罰則（第百十七条―第百二十二条） — consolidation in force 2026-07-21
The payload's own note, verbatim (an instrument name in 【 】 is this site's)
Chapter 8 (第百十七条～第百二十二条) has MORE articles than the eight this fixture joined to jpFinesCeiling. Only the ones 【道路交通法】別表第二's own rows reference by locator are transcribed (第百十八条, 第百十八条の二/三 excluded, 第百十九条, 第百十九条の二の四, 第百十九条の三, 第百二十条, 第百二十一条); 第百十七条 and 第百二十二条 (and 第百十八条の二/三) are not referenced by any 反則金 ceiling row and are not transcribed here.
For a juvenile, the family court sets the amount
【道路交通法】Under Road Traffic Act Art. 130-2(1), second sentence, where a case reaches a family-court hearing the amount is set by that court within the Act's own Appended Table 2 ceiling. There is no fixed schedule figure to read off, so this site states none.
- 道路交通法 (Act No. 105 of 1960), 第百三十条の二第一項後段 — consolidation in force 2026-07-21
The payload's own note, verbatim (an instrument name in 【 】 is this site's)
第百三十条の二第一項後段: when a juvenile's case reaches a family-court hearing, the court MAY order 反則金 payment on its own schedule, and the AMOUNT is then set by the family court itself — "その反則金の額は、第百二十五条第三項の規定にかかわらず、【道路交通法】別表第二に定める金額の範囲内において家庭裁判所が定める額とする" — within 【道路交通法】別表第二's ceiling, but not read off any fixed schedule figure this fixture can transcribe as a number.
The mitigated floor is not stated
Penal Code Art. 15 carries a proviso: on statutory mitigation grounds a court CAN sentence below the floor. This site states only the un-mitigated floor and does not model when mitigation applies.
- Penal Code, Art. 15, proviso
Expressway mainline default speeds are out of scope
The default speed on an expressway mainline is set by Cabinet Order Art. 27, which this site has not transcribed. The general-road figure is never reused for it. On an expressway, enter the posted limit.
- Cabinet Order, Art. 27
No alcohol or BAC classification
This site's calculators do not classify alcohol readings. There is no verified threshold table here to drive one, and producing a number without it would be the opposite of accuracy.
- Not transcribed into this site's payload
No "will I lose my licence" prediction
Suspension and revocation from accumulated points are set by the Cabinet Order's Appended Table 3 together with Road Traffic Act Art. 103. Both were read; neither is modelled. There is no such calculator here.
- Cabinet Order, Appended Table 3 / Road Traffic Act, Art. 103
No foreign-licence or visitor-specific rules
Nothing in the material this site read carries rules specific to foreign licences or cross-border drivers. This English bundle is a translation of the same claims and makes no additional ones.
- Not transcribed into this site's payload
Where to physically pay is not stated here
What the statutes give is the deadline and the no-instalments rule. Counters, banks and opening hours are not sourced, so they are not written. Follow the instructions printed on your own notice.
- Road Traffic Act Arts. 128/129; Cabinet Order Art. 51(4)
QUESTIONS
Frequently asked
The questions that come first, each tied to the provision that answers it.
Which system the case enters. A blue ticket is a citation under the traffic-violation notification system: pay the hansokukin within the deadline and no prosecution follows. A red ticket is criminal, and a court sets the amount within the statutory range. The colour is not a nickname.
There are two windows. 10 days counted from the day after the written notification (Road Traffic Act Art. 128(1)), and 7 days for provisional payment counted from the day after the roadside citation (Art. 129(1)). They start from different events, so they are not the same clock.
No. Cabinet Order Art. 51(4) states that payment of a hansokukin may not be made in instalments, and sets out no exception.
This site does not say. What the statutes give is the deadline and the no-instalments rule; counters and opening hours are not sourced here. Follow the instructions on your own notice.
30 km/h over the limit on an ordinary road and 40 km/h over the limit on an expressway or motor-vehicle-only road. Road Traffic Act Art. 118(1)(i) excludes driving at or above that excess from the notification system.
There are points. The amount table (Cabinet Order, Appended Table 6) stops stating an amount at the criminal-referral threshold; the points table (Appended Table 2, part 1) does not stop there. "No hansokukin" and "points apply" happen together.
Not necessarily — the two tables break at different places. 8 km/h over the limit and 17 km/h over the limit pay ¥9,000 and ¥12,000 respectively, and both score 1 point.
In the amount table, light vehicles including bicycles fall into the moped-etc tier and are priced in every category. Whether the operational rollout described in 2026 media coverage rests on that same basis is not something the material this site read can confirm.
No. What the legislation defines is base points and additional points, in the Cabinet Order's Appended Table 2. The Road Traffic Act itself carries no points table.
This site does not answer that. Suspension and revocation from accumulated points are set by the Cabinet Order's Appended Table 3 with Road Traffic Act Art. 103; neither is modelled here, so no prediction is made.
The case leaves the notification system and moves to the criminal track. For this offence the fine ceiling is ¥100,000 (Road Traffic Act Art. 118(1)(i)) and the floor is ¥10,000 (the general default in Penal Code Art. 15). Where a fine cannot be paid in full, subsidiary detention runs from 1 day to 2 years (Penal Code Art. 18(1)).
On 1 September 2026, Cabinet Order Art. 11 is amended and the default limit on an unsigned general road starts to depend on the road class. Every page states which period its figures were computed under.
NEXT STEP
Start from the ticket in your hand
Once you have the conduct category, the amount, the points and the deadline all follow.