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The Yomiuri Shimbun University students discuss ideas for bike helmets at the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in August.
By Azusa Nakazono / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
7:00 JST, December 1, 2024
With helmet use low among cyclists, Tokyo police are now working with Ryohin Keikaku Co., which produces the Muji brand, to develop bicycle helmets which are both stylish and highly safe.
To come up with design concepts, Metropolitan Police Department and the high-quality retailer have enlisted the help of trend-conscious university students, in hopes of creating helmets which everyone will want to wear.
One day in August, three students from Aoyama Gakuin University were exchanging helmet design ideas in a meeting room at MPD headquarters. “I don’t like when helmets mess up my bangs,” one of them said. “It would be good if it could filter out UV light,” said another.
The three are among 12 members of a project run by the MPD, Ryohin Keikaku and the university to create a “helmet for everyone.”
Volunteers were sought online, and 12 students interested in product development and manufacturing were chosen through document screening and interviews.
The project was launched after a survey found in July 2023 that the rate of helmet use was 10.5% in Tokyo, even lower than the national average of 13.5%.
In a survey conducted by the Tokyo metropolitan government in autumn last year, to which respondents were allowed to give multiple answers, 37.5% of those who do not wear helmets said they do not do so because “there’s no place to leave them and they have to be carried around.” This was followed by “they mess up my hair,” which was picked by 31.8%.
The MPD called on Ryohin Keikaku, which sells lifestyle products popular with people of all ages, to work on developing a new bike helmet. Although the company has never sold helmets, it agreed to participate in the project as “a contribution to society.”
The MPD and Ryohin Keikaku are believed to be aiming to use the students’ ideas as the basis for a product to be released as early as autumn of next year.
“I want to develop a helmet that people of my generation will think is cute,” said one project member, Mio Kitahara, a third-year student at the university.
According to the National Police Agency, of the 1,898 people who died in bicycle accidents in the five years through 2023, 1,023 people, or about 54%, had sustained fatal head injuries.
The death rate among people injured in bicycle accidents was about 1.5 times higher for those who were not wearing helmets than for those who were.
Safety standards for motorcycle riders are set by regulations in such terms as weight, performance and structure for helmets that protect the rider’s head. But for cyclists, wearing a helmet is not compulsory. Since April last year, cyclists are simply obliged to make efforts to wear a helmet. There are also no legal standards for bicycle helmets.
However, because some helmets are insufficient in terms of strength or shock absorption, the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan recommends helmets with the SG (safety goods) mark, which guarantees that the helmet meets safety standards equivalent to those for motorcycles.
Police in other parts of the nation have also racked their brains to find ways to increase the use of bicycle helmets.
The Ishioka Police Station in Ibaraki Prefecture held a short video contest, inviting junior high and high school students to make videos using the key phrase “chari heru” (bike helmet) to promote helmet use. The best projects were uploaded to YouTube.
The Noshiro Police Station in Akita Prefecture sought submissions for helmet design ideas from local high school students this past summer in hopes of prompting cyclists to wear helmets without being told to. A student who designed a helmet featuring motifs such as Akita cedar trees won the top prize.
Local governments are also introducing measures to promote helmet use.
According to a survey conducted by Osaka-based helmet manufacturer OGK Kabuto Co. from February to April, 351 of the 1,630 municipalities in the nation had established systems to subsidize the purchase of bicycle helmets.
