If you don't speak up, you will lose. This is the motto of Hideo Yoshihara, 49, a bookstore owner in Tokyo's Ota Ward, who has earned a reputation for his campaign to change the nation's motorcycle laws.
In July 1989, Yoshihara made liability insurance payments for his two vehicles. He paid 42,850 yen for a seven-seat, 2-ton Mitsubishi van, and 62,450 yen for a 200-kg Yamaha motorcycle -- each payment for a period of 24 months. At the time, he wondered why the payment for the bike was much higher.
He knew liability insurance is paid out only when drivers injure other people, not when they themselves are injured. He said accidents involving motorcycles have fewer chances of injuring others, compared with those involving other motor vehicles. Yoshihara called the Transport Ministry with questions.