How to ride

It starts with the TOCKLE app, free on the App Store and Google Play. No driving licence is needed — anyone aged 16 or over can ride.

Sign in with your email address first. Enter the six-digit code that arrives, fill in your profile, and the account is made.

Next comes payment and ID. Add a credit card from the side menu, then tap “Verify ID” at the bottom of the screen and choose your country of residence. Pick one document — a driving licence, My Number card or passport — photograph it with the camera, and then take a photo of your face so the two can be matched.

The traffic-rules test appears when you start your first ride. Pass it and you are away.

Find a nearby pick-up point in the app and choose one of the vehicles standing there. Scan the barcode on it and the lock releases, starting your ride. If the scan will not take, you can key in the number printed on the vehicle instead.

Before you scan, look it over: battery level, tyres, brakes, the lights front and back, the indicators, the horn. If anything is off, leave that one and report it in the app.

A helmet is not compulsory under Japanese law, but wearing one is strongly encouraged.

Push off firmly twice with one foot. The throttle will not answer until the vehicle is already moving.

Once you have some speed, put both feet on the board. From there, press the throttle gently with your thumb and you are moving.

You ride on the left-hand side of the road. Pavements are not permitted, and only sealed roads are — no gravel tracks or forest paths.

Standing with one foot ahead of the other steadies you. Keep your movements smooth and your body upright.

To stop, take your thumb off the throttle and brake. Once you are off, hold the kickstand down with your foot to set the vehicle upright.

Press the lever slowly with your right thumb to accelerate. Push it all the way at once and the vehicle lurches forward, so build up gradually.

The top speed is 20 km/h. Where there are people, on a descent, or at a blind corner, come well below that.

Stepping away for a moment — a convenience store, say — tap the lock icon in the app to lock it temporarily. The ride stays open, so you can set off again when you come back.

When you park, hold the kickstand down with your foot to set it upright, and leave it somewhere out of everyone's way.

When you reach a pick-up point, end the ride in the app and photograph the parked vehicle. That completes the return.

You do not have to bring it back to where you started — any pick-up point with space will do. If the one you were heading for is full, carry on to a nearby one.

Put the kickstand down and leave it upright, visible, and out of everyone's way. Leaving it outside a pick-up point incurs a penalty charge.

A single ride lasts up to 24 hours.