I'm a (traffic) criminal in Japan 🚗🦹‍♂️

Okay not really, it was just a ticket for riding a LUUP scooter on the sidewalk without the 6km/h throttle on. Totally my fault for not knowing the rules. The more interesting part was the process of dealing with the ticket, which I’ve detailed below. Anyways, here’s the March edition of my newsletter!

Table of Contents

• New book on how to revive the Japanese economy 🇯� …

• In remembrance of Skype; what to use instead? 📞🪦

• Transferring LINE Pay Balance to PayPay (Japanese …

• Migrating your LINE account to an Asia LINE accoun …

  • Tips for a smooth transfer process:

• Dealing with Traffic Tickets in Japan 🚗🇯🇵

• Conclusions

New book on how to revive the Japanese economy 🇯🇵📖

My friend Noah Smith (of Noahpinion) wrote a book on how to revive the Japanese economy, titled Weeb Economy: ウイーブが日本を救う (The Weebs Will Save Japan). It’s Japanese only for now, but you can read the original English language blog posts at the above link. He’s an economics blogger who write on a variety of topics, and also loves East Asia. I’ve always found his writing insightful, so if you are interested, please check it out!

In remembrance of Skype; what to use instead? 📞🪦

Skype will be shutting down in May 2025, marking the end of an era for those using it to keep in touch with others abroad. Unused Skype credit will be refunded to the original payment method, or another refund method will be provided if that’s not possible. Yes, there are many alternatives for online meetings now, but sometimes the only option is still to make an international call. But don’t worry—there are still plenty of great alternatives out there to make affordable international calls:

• Google Voice is a solid option for American expats. Signing up requires linking a real US phone number. You get a new virtual phone number that can receive calls and texts. It offers free calls within the US and low-cost international rates. I’ve found that even though you can often add VOIP numbers like Google Voice to your contact info for banks, they often don’t work for 2 factor verification, especially when calling the bank.

• For Rakuten Mobile users in Japan, Rakuten Link allows international calls at cheap rates.

• Yolla allows you to make calls to both landlines and mobile phones worldwide. The app offers free calls between Yolla users and low-cost international rates for non-users, making it an affordable way to stay connected with people around the globe.

• Viber is another popular messaging app, and includes voice and video calling features. Viber Out lets you call any phone number worldwide at competitive rates.

• KeepCalling lets you call any phone number globally using just an internet connection, with competitive rates.

• Talk360 allows you to call landlines and mobile phones anywhere in the world.

If you have any favorite international calling app, please leave a comment!

Transferring LINE Pay Balance to PayPay (Japanese users) 🇯🇵

LINE Pay is a payment method associated with the LINE messaging app, only available to users in certain countries. LINE Pay in Japan is shutting down in April 2025; if you have any balance in LINE Pay you should transfer your balance to PayPay (LINE help page). You must transfer by April 23, 2025 otherwise it will be stuck. You can start the procedure from the LINE App, after also making sure PayPay is installed.

From the official instructions:

1. From the LINE Pay main menu, tap Migrate balance.

2. Add a check to agree to the terms and conditions and tap Next.

3. After moving to the PayPay app, finish linking it with LINE Pay.

4. After moving back to the LINE app, read the notes on the "Balance migration to PayPay" screen and add a check mark to "Agree to all of the above and migrate balance."

5. Tap Migrate balance.

After successfully transferring your balance, it shows up as a top up of PayPay Money Lite, which cannot be cashed out but can be used to pay merchants and other users.

Migrating your LINE account to an Asia LINE account 🌏

When I first started using LINE, I wasn’t living in Asia and did not have a corresponding phone number to sign up with. At that time, it didn’t make a huge difference what country your LINE account was registered in.

However, LINE started adding country specific features, most notably LINE Pay which is very commonly used in Taiwan, and occasionally in Thailand. As mentioned above, LINE Pay in Japan is shutting down April 2025 and being merged with PayPay. While normally you could use LINE Pay from an account in one country to pay in another country, unfortunately it doesn’t seem like you can use LINE Pay from other countries to pay for PayPay codes in Japan.

Other weird quirks: you can’t add someone by ID if your account isn’t registered in the same country. It’s probably a security feature but is annoying for usability. The only way that works is via QR code, or being connected through a group and adding from the other user’s contact page.

Thus, I wanted to transfer my account to a Taiwanese account while keeping all my contacts and chats intact. This only works if you are trying to change to a Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, or Thailand number.

Given the shutdown of LINE Pay in Japan, I don’t think there’s a major reason to move your LINE account to a Japan one. The core functions of LINE are the same. Some Japan-only LINE features still exist, but they aren’t compelling for most users. The biggest one I can think of is LINEスマート通知 (Smart Notifications) which integrates with Japanese banks and services for alerts.

Tips for a smooth transfer process:

Register a password on your account: the transfer process assumes you’ve registered a password on your account. Otherwise you will get stuck at this part of the transfer process and have to go through an annoying process with support.

Use a second device: the transfer process assumes you are transferring between phones and will ask for an account transfer code from your old device. It’s best to log into a second device and then migrate to a new phone number on your original device. If you don’t have one, then you will likely have to go through an annoying process with support to skip the account transfer code.

Disable 2 factor authentication: this is required if changing phone numbers. It’s possible that this step obviates the need for a second device, but I haven’t tested.

Dealing with Traffic Tickets in Japan 🚗🇯🇵

I broke the law in Japan and am facing the consequences 😅. No, this is not a criminal conviction you need to check when entering the country. In my specific case, because LUUP scooters are classified as small vehicles, you can’t ride them on sidewalks without activating the 6km/h mode, which turns on blinking lights on the handlebars. Any sort of vehicle that goes faster than 6km/h without human power is considered a small vehicle that can’t ride on sidewalks without being in the special throttle mode. On the other hand, electric bicycles that are pedal assist are considered normal bicycles (including LUUP bikes). As a minor offense, I received a blue ticket and a fine of ¥6000, with the initial ticket due within 7 business days. There’s a good writeup on how the traffic fine and demerit system works at GaijinPot.

Fines can only be paid at banks or post offices during business hours. When I received the ticket, it was a Saturday and I was flying out of the country that day, so I wasn’t able to pay the fine right away. I asked a friend if they could help pay it for me before the deadline, but unfortunately that did not happen. Apparently the post office at Narita Airport does NOT handle this operation, so it’s possible there are some post offices where you can’t pay for tickets. Sadly the initial deadline to pay passed by.

Apparently if you go to the traffic division of the region with the overdue payment slip, you can get a new one and pay on the spot. Unfortunately since I was given the ticket in Osaka and I had no plans to return anytime soon, I wasn’t able to do this.

After the deadline to pay for the initial ticket expired, I waited for the notice by mail, but nothing came. After calling the Osaka traffic division, they said it could take over a month and a half to send the ticket out, and it would require signature and also add on a mail processing fee of ¥940.

Again, the followup ticket can only be paid for at banks and post offices. Fortunately, this time my friend was able to help me pay for the ticket! It seems like generally it’s fine for a related party to help you pay for tickets.

This system is definitely inefficient - it would be nice if they could add convenience store, QR, or online payments, and if the deadline to pay the initial ticket was longer. There seems to be no practical difference between the initial ticket and the followup ticket by mail, and there’s no way to pay for the fine after the initial ticket deadline passes and before you receive the followup in the mail without visiting the regional traffic division. I hope this system can be improved in the future.

It was stressful to worry about meeting the deadlines for paying the fine and making sure I did not get in further legal trouble!

Conclusions

I hope these tips about LINE and traffic tickets in Japan that I learned through personal experience are helpful for people. You can always reach out at [email protected] for comments or questions! You can also support this publication by becoming a paid subscriber or a Patreon!