Bicycle Registration (Bohan Toroku)

Bicycle registration in Japan, known as bohan toroku, links every bicycle to its owner in a prefectural police record.¹² Register at the shop when you buy, keep the proof, and update the record when you move or hand the bicycle on.

Confirm current details with official sources

Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Metropolitan Police Department site and your prefecture's designated bicycle registration body.

Overview

The system is called 自転車防犯登録 (jitensha bōhan tōroku, "bicycle crime-prevention registration").¹ It exists to deter theft and to return found bicycles to their owners quickly.¹³⁴

Everyone who holds a bicycle must register it in the prefecture where the bicycle is used.¹ The duty covers new and used bicycles alike and applies to foreign residents on the same terms as Japanese nationals.²⁵

Registration is run prefecture by prefecture by a body designated by each prefectural public safety commission.¹ Owner data is not shared nationwide, so register where you ride.²

What Bohan Toroku Is and Why It Is Required

The legal duty sits in Article 12(3) of the bicycle-promotion act: a person who uses a bicycle must receive the registration run by the body their prefectural public safety commission designates.¹⁴ No fine attaches to skipping it, but the duty is still stated as an obligation, and an unregistered bicycle is harder to recover or prove yours.²³

Registration also helps when a bicycle is removed from a no-parking zone, since the record lets the authorities trace the owner.⁶

The frame sticker and the owner-linked record

At the counter, the shop affixes a 防犯登録標識 (bōhan tōroku hyōshiki, "registration sticker") to the frame.² The sticker carries a unique registration number tied to the owner.

The owner's address, name, and phone number, plus the registration number and the 車体番号 (shatai bangō, "frame number"), are entered into the police computer record.² In Tokyo that data entry takes about two months, so keep a photo of your documents during the gap.²

You receive a 自転車防犯登録カード（お客様控） (jitensha bōhan tōroku kādo okyakusama hikae, "registration card customer copy") at the counter.¹ It is not reissued, so keep it for address changes, transfers, theft reports, and disposal filings.¹²

If the sticker is peeled off or destroyed, the same number cannot be reissued.² You file a fresh new registration instead.²

Registering a New Bicycle at the Shop

Buy at a shop that displays the 自転車防犯登録所 (jitensha bōhan tōroku-sho, "authorized registration counter") sign and the registration happens on the spot.² The shop files with the police on your behalf, affixes the sticker, and hands you the customer copy of the card.²

If you bought online or at a non-registered shop, bring the bicycle to any authorized counter: a marked bicycle shop, supermarket, or home center.²

The flow looks like this:

What to bring and what the shop does

Bring the bicycle itself and a residence-confirming public ID such as a driver's license or health insurance card.² Foreign nationals use the same counters; a residence card works as the public ID.²⁵

For online or other-shop purchases, also bring the warranty card or sales certificate showing the shop name, product name, and frame number.² That paperwork smooths the filing.

Photograph the sticker, frame number, and card on day one

Police data entry takes about two months in Tokyo, and the customer card is never reissued. A phone photo of all three covers theft reports and transfers filed during the gap.²

The registration fee

Fees are set per prefecture and change on an administrative schedule: Tokyo is 660 yen tax-exempt (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with the Tokyo bicycle registration body), Chiba is 700 yen (as of 2025-07-01), and Hyogo is 800 yen (as of 2026-09).²⁴⁷

Item	Amount	As of	Notes
Tokyo new registration	¥660, tax-exempt	2026-092	Filed at an authorized shop counter
Chiba new registration	¥700	2025-07-014	Revised from the prior figure on 2025-07-01
Hyogo new registration	¥800	2026-097	Filed at a member sales shop

Older English guides still quote 500 yen (as of 2026-09).⁸ Treat that figure as outdated against the current prefectural primaries above.²⁴⁷

Registering a Used or Transferred Bicycle

A secondhand bicycle needs registration in the new owner's name before regular use.² In Tokyo the recipient gets a brand-new registration number; the old number is never simply renamed.²

Prefectures split on the transfer path, so confirm your prefecture's routing before you go.⁹ Some allow a change-of-owner filing by the new owner alone, while others require the giver to cancel first and the recipient to register anew.⁹

Change of owner vs cancel and reregister

On the change-of-owner path, the new owner files with the old card, the transfer certificate, or both, without the giver appearing in person.⁹ This path exists only in the prefectures that offer it.

On the cancel-and-reregister path, the giver cancels first, then the recipient files a fresh registration with the cancellation evidence.⁹ Cancellation itself is free according to practitioner reporting, but the recipient's fresh filing costs the prefectural fee again (as of 2026-09).⁹²

A bicycle still registered to someone else generally cannot be re-registered by the new holder without the old owner's cancellation or transfer documents.⁹

Documents for giver and recipient

The giver cancels at a registration counter, then hands over three things: the cancellation slip, the old registration card, and a 譲渡証明書 (jōto shōmeisho, "transfer-of-ownership certificate").⁶² The certificate needs no official form; a handwritten note naming giver and recipient and confirming the handover suffices.⁶

The recipient brings those documents plus personal ID, the fee, and the bicycle to a registration counter and files in their own name.⁶²

Do not skip the paperwork on a secondhand bicycle

In Tokyo these transfer steps run at bicycle shops, not at police stations.⁶ Arriving at a koban expecting a transfer wastes the trip.

Police Checks and Proof of Ownership

Officers conduct on-the-spot bicycle checks, called 職務質問 (shokumu shitsumon, "police questioning"), in which the sticker number is looked up to confirm the rider owns the bicycle.⁸ Resident guides describe these checks as routine practice (limitation: frequency rests on practitioner reporting, not a police-published statistic).⁸⁹

With registration, the sticker lookup typically ends the check.⁸ Without it, or on a bicycle still registered to someone else, the rider must explain the purchase or transfer path on the spot, which takes longer and can read as possible theft until ownership is shown.⁸⁹²

What happens at a stop-and-check

Show the registration card copy or its photo, plus proof of purchase and the frame number, if the sticker is missing or the record is still in the two-month entry gap.²⁹ Keeping those photos on your phone is the fastest way through.

Moving, Selling, or Disposing: Updating the Record

Because records are prefecture-scoped, an inter-prefecture move means deleting the old record and registering anew where the bicycle will be used.²⁴ A move inside the same prefecture is an address-change filing instead.⁴

Records also expire. Tokyo keeps data for 10 years from the year after registration, Chiba for 10 years from the registration date, and Hyogo for 15 years.¹²⁴⁷ After expiry, file a fresh new registration to keep riding the same bicycle.²

Change of address transfer

In Tokyo, an owner who moves, marries, or changes phone number files a change registration (変更登録, henkō tōroku, "registration-change filing") at an authorized shop counter.¹⁰ Bring the bicycle, the customer card, and current ID.

In Chiba, address, phone, and name changes plus deletions go to a police station or police box in the prefecture, not to prefectural headquarters.⁴ The filer or a cohabiting family member may also request by phone.⁴

Tokyo and Chiba update at different counters

Tokyo routes address changes through authorized shop counters, while Chiba routes them through police stations and koban. Check your prefecture's routing before carrying the bicycle across town.¹⁰⁴

Sale, gift, and disposal

Before handing a bicycle over, delete the old registration and pass the cancellation slip, old card, and transfer certificate to the recipient.⁶⁴ Before scrapping one, delete the record so the frame number is no longer tied to you.⁴

If the bicycle was removed from a no-parking zone, contact the removing authority promptly; the registration record helps trace the owner, but authorities may dispose of unclaimed bicycles after a short period.²⁶

Good to know

Some shops are unfamiliar with foreign-resident registration but it is routine

A residence card plus your address suffices as the residence-confirming ID at the same authorized counters as everyone else.²⁵ The Tokyo registration body still labels the foreign-national path with the outdated term for a foreign registration certificate, which today means the residence card.²

If a clerk hesitates, ask for bohan toroku by name and show the residence card. The procedure itself is identical.²⁵

High-end and distinctive bicycles draw more stop-and-checks

Practitioner sources report that conspicuous bicycles are stopped for sticker lookup more often (limitation: a reported pattern, not a police-published targeting rule).⁸ Keeping the sticker visible and the card photo on your phone shortens those checks to a number lookup.²

Do not ride a bicycle still registered to someone else

Riding before the transfer filing leaves the police record pointing at the previous owner.⁹ At a roadside check that mismatch reads as possible theft until you produce the transfer certificate and the new filing.⁹²

Each fresh filing costs the prefectural fee again: 660 yen in Tokyo (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with your prefecture's registration body), 700 yen in Chiba (as of 2025-07-01), 800 yen in Hyogo (as of 2026-09).²⁴⁷ Budget the second fee into any secondhand purchase even though the giver's cancellation was free.⁹

See also

• Rules of the Road for Bicyclists
• Bicycle Insurance: The Mandatory Coverage
• Parking and the Impound-and-Fine Mechanic
• Oversized Trash (Sodai Gomi) and the Prepayment Sticker

References

Footnotes

1. 警視庁 (Metropolitan Police Department). 「自転車防犯登録」. https://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/kurashi/higai/guard/bicycle.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. 一般社団法人東京都自転車商防犯協力会. 「防犯登録Q&A」. https://bouhan-net.com/qa/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰ ↩³¹ ↩³² ↩³³ ↩³⁴ ↩³⁵ ↩³⁶ ↩³⁷

3. 一般社団法人東京都自転車商防犯協力会. 「防犯登録とは」. https://bouhan-net.com/about/whatresist/ ↩ ↩²

4. 千葉県警察. 「自転車の防犯登録について」. https://www.police.pref.chiba.jp/seisoka/safe-life_publicspace-vehicle_bicycle_theft_00003.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

5. Relocation Japan (licensed relocation-firm guide). 「Japan Bicycle Rules: Anti-Theft Registration」. https://relocation-japan.com/en/japan-bicycle-rules-registration-insurance/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. 新宿区 (Shinjuku City, foreign-language page). 「Anti-Crime Registration, When Bicycle Ownership Changes」. 2017-09-05. https://www.foreign.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/en/kurashi/bouhantoroku/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

7. 兵庫県警察. 「自転車とバイクの盗難防止対策」. https://www.police.pref.hyogo.lg.jp/seikatu/bike/index.htm ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

8. The Expat's Guide to Japan. 「Riding a Bicycle in Japan」. 2024-01-25. https://expatsguide.jp/travel-transportation/on-the-road/riding-a-bicycle ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

9. GaijinPot (Lynda Deaver). 「Buying and Registering a Used Bicycle in Japan」. 2014-05-24. https://blog.gaijinpot.com/registering-used-bicycle-japan ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

10. 小平市 (Kodaira City). 「引越しや自転車を譲り受けたので防犯登録を変更したいのですが」. 2023-11-20. https://www.city.kodaira.tokyo.jp/faq/008/008144.html ↩ ↩²