For the first time in Japan, pedestrians have been banned from viewing mobile phone screens. The ban is currently in effect in Yamato, a town near the capital, Tokyo.
The railway station has instructions on all sides to inform about the new law. Banners read that it is forbidden to look at the screen of a mobile phone while walking in a street, park or any public centre.
A large number of citizens have supported the new law, which includes the elderly as well as the young. In this city of 240,000, only a handful of people have been seen violating the new law.
In 2014, research by Japanese mobile giant NTT Docomo estimated a pedestrian’s average field of vision while staring down at a smartphone is five percent of what our eyes take in normally.
The company ran a computer simulation of what would occur if 1,500 people used the hectic Shibuya pedestrian crossing in Tokyo while all looking at their smartphones.
The results showed that two-thirds would not make it to the other side without incident, with 446 collisions, 103 people being knocked down and 21 dropping their phones.
The number of accidents between people using phones while riding a bicycle and pedestrians is also increasing in Japan.
In some cases, victims’ families demand up to 100 million yen ($1 million) in compensation.