金曜日, 2月 26 2016
The job of the parking warden in Japan is to make the lives of drivers as pleasant as possible. Anybody can become a parking warden in Japan as long as they are over 18 - no qualifications are needed but candidates need to take a 14 hour test.
Parking wardens usually travel in numbers of two and you will often see them taking photos of the offending vehicle as evidence before cutting a ticket.
On roads where there are parking meters, one can only park for 1 hour - then you need to move the car a little bit and then pay again in the same meter if you want to stay longer. Meters have an infrared device installed that detects whether a car has moved completely out of the way of the meter before it resets itself for the next person to put their monies in. I would say that this is done purposely to fine drivers who fail to get back to the meter within the hour.
As the parking warden business is privatized, I heard that wardens are paid for each ticket that they cut which seems to motivate them - they are all seeing and it's normal to see them appear a couple of minutes before the parking meter hits the limit.
Parking fines are ranked depending on where you left your car - it can cost up to 18,000 yen or 25,000 yen if you drive a large vehicle.
How much are parking tickets where you live? I drove up to Canada from Seattle once - they seem to love sticking tickets on your car.
#27335