Article
Reading the 2026 speed limit reform
Before and after, as two periods of the same article rather than two rules.
Before and after, as two periods of the same article rather than two rules.
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.
The change
A single national default becomes a question about the road
For as long as most drivers in Japan can remember, an unsigned general road has had one statutory default speed for cars: 60 km/h, uniformly, with no distinction between one unsigned road and another.
From 1 September 2026, the Cabinet Order article stating that default is replaced, and the figure becomes conditional. Roads carrying a centre line or lane markings, roads that are themselves expressways or motor-vehicle-only roads, and roads whose directions are structurally separated keep 60 km/h. Every other unsigned general road drops to 30 km/h.
The roads that drop are the unmarked local and residential streets — in practice the commonest road class in the country, and the one where a driver is least likely to be looking for a sign in the first place.
The moped default is not changed by this amendment, and the related towing and emergency-vehicle exceptions are unchanged as well.
Why it is easy to miss
Not one figure in either penalty schedule moves
Here is what makes this reform unusual to write about: no amount in the fine schedule changes on that date, and no value in the points schedule changes either.
Anyone checking whether this amendment affects traffic penalties by looking for changed penalty figures would find nothing and reasonably conclude that nothing relevant had happened. That conclusion would be wrong, and the way it is wrong is instructive.
The amendment does not touch the penalties. It touches the INPUT the penalties are computed from — and a check that only recognises changes in the vocabulary of money is structurally blind to it.
The mechanism
Every band on this site is a band of excess
Speeding is not priced by speed. It is priced by excess: the difference between the measured speed and the limit that applied. The limit is therefore an input to every band boundary on this site.
Change the limit and the excess changes. Change the excess and the band changes. Change the band and both the amount and the points change with it — and, at the top of the scale, whether the case is inside the notification system at all.
So a driver travelling at an unchanged speed on an unchanged road can move between bands without a single figure in either schedule having been amended. That is the whole reform, in one sentence.
How this site handles it
Two periods of one article, not two rules
The temptation is to present this as "the old rule" and "the new rule" and let the reader work out which applies. This site does not, because that framing hides the thing that matters: it is one provision with two effective periods, and which period governs is a function of the date.
So the default is resolved by date wherever it is used, and pages state which period their figures were computed under. Before the date, the current figure; from the date, the conditional one. The same page gives different answers on either side of it, which is correct behaviour rather than a defect.
The change is carried in the payload as a genuine future period rather than as a note beneath a table. A footnote is something a reader can miss; a resolved value is not.
What has not changed
Signs still govern, and this is only the general-road default
Where a limit is posted, the sign governs. This amendment is entirely about what applies in the ABSENCE of a posted limit, and it leaves that mechanism untouched.
It is also confined to general roads. Expressway mainline defaults are set by a different article, which this site has not transcribed and does not reuse the general-road figure for. On an expressway this site asks for the posted limit rather than supplying one.
The practical question for a driver is therefore narrower than it might appear: not "what is the new national number" but "which of my regular roads are unmarked". Those are the ones where the answer changes.
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)
NEXT STEP
Start from the ticket in your hand
Once you have the conduct category, the amount, the points and the deadline all follow.