Watch how Japan’s new PM Fumio Kishida travel without police outriders stopping traffic

Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was appointed in October 2021, taking over from Yoshihide Suga, who had to step down after serving just one year following huge dissatisfaction among voters for his poor handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here’s a video of Prime Minister’s Kishida’s on the move. Viewed in isolation, this is just a typical day for any member of the Japanese Cabinet, who are expected to adhere to road traffic regulations like any other road user.

People outside of Japan, many of whom are used to having police outriders forcing them to move aside to the hard shoulder, will find the Japanese Prime Minister motorcade’s lack of police outriders and loud sirens strange, in a good way.

In the first scene (repeated with two different angles), Prime Minister Kishida’s Toyota Century encountered busy traffic and had to move from the right-most lane into an exit ramp. Normally, you would expect police escorts with loud sirens blaring to stop the traffic but there was none of that here.

Instead, members of the Prime Minister’s security detail escorting him merely need to pop out of their Lexus LS and Toyota Crown’s windows with a light baton to give a gentle wave so the motorcade could indicate and switch lanes in unison. As traffic was inching ahead slowly, the Prime Minister’s motorcade had to wait for a short while before a gap to the exit ramp opened.

In the next scene, the Prime Minister’s motorcade was going up a ramp to enter the highway. This time, sirens and beacons were turned on to alert other road users of the approaching motorcade.

Once again, traffic was not stopped but only light batons, loud hailers, whistles, and turn signals were needed. Traffic flow was interrupted for only less than 5 seconds.

Notice also that the last vehicle in the convoy flashed its hazard lights twice to apologize for the inconvenience caused.

In the daytime, white gloves and gentle waving of the hand replace light batons. As mentioned earlier, this practice is not unique to the current PM. Short of the Emperor of Japan, all elected government officials and ministers there go about their duties with no police outriders.