Procedure

If you do not pay

Not paying is not an outcome. It is a move into a different system.

[ 画像 ]int-unpaid4:3

Read alongside

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 criminal side

bakkin 罰金

A criminal track. A court sets the amount within the statutory range. There is no fixed schedule to read it off.

Ceiling

¥100,000

道路交通法第百十八条第一項第一号

Floor

¥10,000

刑法第十五条（第八条を介した一般則）

Subsidiary detention

1 day – 2 years

刑法第十八条第一項

In force: 道路交通法第百十八条第一項第一号 (ceiling); 刑法第十五条 via 第八条 (floor, inferred)
Source: 刑法第十八条第一項
status: transcribed, not signed off

罰金等臨時措置法第二条

This is real machinery that raises a low statutory ceiling for special-law offences. Applied to this offence's ceiling of ¥100,000, it raises nothing (¥100,000 after). "Checked, and it changes nothing here" is written down rather than left as an omission.

罰金等臨時措置法第二条

The change of track

The blue-ticket route is an offer, and it can lapse

The notification system exists to let a violation be concluded administratively: pay the stated amount within the window and no prosecution follows. That is what the blue ticket represents.

It is not the only route the conduct could take — it is the route made available for it. Where the amount is not paid within the window, or where the route was never available in the first place, what is left is the ordinary criminal process for the same conduct.

So "not paying" is not a decision to accept a worse version of the same thing. It is a decision to be dealt with by a different system, with a court rather than a schedule deciding the amount.

The court-set fine

A range, and no table to read it off

On the criminal track there is no band ladder. For the speeding offence this site models, the Road Traffic Act states a ceiling of ¥100,000, and the floor of ¥10,000 comes from the general rule in the Penal Code rather than from the traffic legislation at all.

That floor is worth being precise about, because it is an inference across two instruments rather than a single quoted provision. The Penal Code's general provisions apply to offences under other laws unless that other law states its own special rule, and the Road Traffic Act states none for this offence's floor. This site cites the chain rather than attributing the figure to the traffic act alone.

Between those two figures, the amount is the court's. There is no schedule, no per-kilometre rate, and nothing on this site that can predict where in the range a particular case would land.

If the fine is not paid

Subsidiary detention is court-set and bounded in years

Where a court-imposed fine cannot be paid in full, the Penal Code provides for detention in a workhouse in its place, for a period from 1 day to 2 years.

There is no conversion formula. Japan states no rate of days per yen — the court sets the period, and it is pronounced together with the fine itself at sentencing. This site does not compute one, because computing one would mean inventing a rule the statute does not contain.

The upper bound is stated in years rather than as a day count, which is why this site treats it as a calendar span rather than a fixed number of days. Two years measured across a leap year is not the same number of days as two years measured elsewhere.

Machinery that was checked

The general fine-raising Act applies here, and changes nothing

A separate Act provides a general mechanism for raising a statutory fine ceiling or floor that has fallen too low, and it does apply to Road Traffic Act offences. It is real machinery, not a historical curiosity.

It was applied to this offence's figures and it raises nothing: the ceiling and floor here already clear its thresholds. This site says so explicitly rather than staying silent about it, because "we checked, and it changes nothing here" is a publishable answer and a more useful one than an unexplained omission.

That distinction — between a mechanism that does not exist, one that was not checked, and one that was checked and did not fire — is one this site tries to keep visible everywhere it applies.

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