Bicycle Messengers of Tokyo, Japan

A City Built For Battle

By Eli Chessen
Messenger Portraits by Yohei Morita

San Francisco has it’s abundant, gnarly hills and irksome cable car tracks, NYC has it’s ticketing cops and aggressive cabbies, Chicago has foul weather, L.A. has deadly smog and deadly road rage, Seattle has too many damn Starbucks, Boston has retarded anti-messenger laws, Chinese city streets are utter fucking chaos, London has it’s rollerbladers and right of ways, and Tokyo’s streets make absolutely no sense.

Four hundred years ago, Japan’s Imperial Palace was in Kyoto. But, Kyoto’s streets are built along a grid, similar to Manhattan. When conquering armies attacked Kyoto, they could march directly up to the palace’s gates. When the palace moved up to Tokyo, the powers that were, decided that the streets of Kyoto had been too easy to navigate and they didn’t want anyone to be able to easily attack the new palace. So, they built the streets of Tokyo like a giant, winding labyrinth; to be as confusing as possible so that invading armies would get caught up in the maze before they reached the emperor. This strategy proved successful. But then, Tokyo was attacked by air at the end of WWII. After the fire-bombings, Tokyoites were understandably in a rush to rebuild the city and thus, for the most part, everything was rebuilt amongst the same property borders and along the same defensively confusing roads that had existed for hundreds of years. What we’re left with is the world’s most densely populated city built throughout a maze.

Most residents have no serious trouble getting around due to Tokyo’s amazing mass transit systems. But, for those who travel along Tokyo’s streets, it can be brutally mind-boggling. This is a city where even the locals can get lost in the neighborhoods they grew up in. It’s no wonder why it’s so shockingly rare to see a car without a navigation system on the front dash.
To make matters worse, the address system is, to be blunt, ridiculous. A typical Japanese address includes a postal code, prefecture, ward, neighborhood name, building name, a chome number, and a block number (chome are sections of a neighborhood, each consisting of a couple dozen blocks or so). But, most of the important elements of an address, which you may take for granted, simply don’t exist. “What street is it on?” you may ask. Well, sorry.

The vast majority of streets don’t have names! “Well, then how the hell do you know what street you’re on?!” Good question. You know when you know, and you don’t when you don’t. Houses and buildings may have numbers and/or names, but these numbers bare no relation to the buildings’ location! The numbers usually correspond to when the building was built, rebuilt, or simply approved for construction, not where it is on a map. So, as you go along a street, the building numbers are essentially random. 15 is most likely nowhere near 16 or 17. Blocks (or small groups of small blocks) are usually assigned their own numbers, too. But, again, they’re usually geographically random. As are chome numbers. Tokyo does have addresses, but unless you stare at a map for a while or you have the city miraculously memorized with some crazy savant-like super power, you’re going to need more than just the address. You’re going to need directions. Many Tokyoites don’t ask if you need directions, they just give them.

Most houses and building don’t post their names clearly, or simply don’t post them at all. Even with super high-tech navigation systems in taxis, cab drivers almost always need directions from their customers. If you don’t know where your destination is, chances are that other people won’t know either.
So, how do messengers deal? Well, some struggle daily to deal, and many can’t really deal. But, all of them carry a map at all times and use it a lot.

Until the late 90’s, bicycle messengers were virtually non-existent in Tokyo. Nearly all deliveries were made by thousands of motorcycles and scooters. A few companies started hiring a handful of bicycle messengers to supplement their large motorcycle fleets. Slowly, over the years, small, bicycle-only messenger companies have started popping up (there are about a dozen these days). Bicycle messenger popularity has gradually grown amongst customers and the general public.
It’s difficult for bicycles to compete with motorcycles in Japan, where you can purchase a decent scooter for a week’s wages. The idea that bicycles can get around in a city as fast or faster than motorcycles hasn’t really caught on yet. Plus, Tokyo is huge. Central Tokyo consists of 23 wards. Setagaya ward, alone, is about the same size as Manhattan. In total, the 23 wards are almost 3 times larger than all 5 NYC boroughs combined. Granted, that’s a lot of ground for a non-motorized vehicle to cover. A few companies only service certain wards, but others cover the whole giant city (and beyond). Still, today, there are significantly more motorcycle messengers than bicycle messengers in Japan.

Tokyo’s much flatter than, say, San Francisco or Seattle, but it does have it’s fair share of hills, so the vast majority of messengers like to have gears. Before the pisto boom, there were a dedicated few who rode fixed-gear while working, but the number of messengers riding pisto has definitely increased recently.
The average pay for fulltime messengers is 250,000 Yen per month ($2359 U.S.). That may be more than your typical American messenger takes home, but Tokyo is one of the most expensive cities in the world. A typical workday is 8-10 hours straight, with non-stop deliveries and no breaks. That’s 40-50 hours a week with no slacking. Depending on which company they work for, messengers get paid by the hour, purely on commissions, or sometimes workers are salaried. But, many wind up barely scraping by each month and a large percentage find themselves working a second job at night or on weekends to make ends meet.
Injuries are par for course. Most think about when an injury will occur, not if one will occur. Injuries are especially common at companies that pay on commission only. These messengers are more often in a hectic rush and in the pursuit of more commissions. If you’re getting paid by the hour, you’re a lot less likely to squeeze between those two big, fast-moving trucks at top cadence or plow through an intersection full of jaywalkers. It’s crazy hard to get a driver’s license in Japan, so most drivers are pretty decent.
Unfortunately, as most bicycles stay on the sidewalks, motorists don’t expect to see bicycle messengers squeezing between their side mirrors and oncoming traffic in a turn lane. Japan has a fair public health system, so all messengers have insurance, but when an injury keeps a messenger away from work it’s very costly to their already burdened personal budgets.

Like in most cities, Tokyo bike messengers, whether they like it or not, wind up being the backbone of the bike community. Bike shops are run by ex-messengers, events and races are almost always organized by messengers, and let’s face it, most bike geeks’ dream job is being a messenger, so they’re subsequently looked up to.

Alleycat races and messenger events have become a common occurrence in Tokyo. There’s Klaxon, Mixpression, Karmalizm, PiLLAGE, and a bunch of other randomly organized races, group rides, and events. More and more non-messengers have started coming to these races and events, due in large part to the pisto boom. These events are open to everyone, but suffice to say the winners of the races are nearly always messengers (well, usually Sino). If the racers have to hit up 12 surprise checkpoints in a race, that’s 12 times non-messengers may get lost, miss a shortcut, or have to stop and study their maps.
Most of the Japanese messengers who you may have met at international competitions come from the small, elite companies like Cyclex or Courier. If you’ve ever met any, you know they’re some of the nicest, chillest, coolest, funnest, people on the planet! They’re always kind and always down to party. Next time you see a Japanese messenger dazed and confused in your town, hangout, speak slowly, and show them a good time. They’ll do the same for you when you come visit Japan.