Mamachari – Japanology Plus
Bicycles known as mamachi are a common sight on Japan’s streets. Originally, they were designed for women. Steady and easy to ride, they are loved by people of all ages, traveling to work or school or going on shopping trips. Once they were an essential purchase for a new bride, they also helped women enter the workforce. As the Japanese population ages, there are now mama designed for senior citizens and people with disabilities. In other countries, used mamaachadi from Japan have become a popular form of transportation. In today’s episode, we investigate the popularity of mamachi bicycles and the role they have played in Japanese society. [Music] [Music] Hello and welcome to Japanology Plus. time feeder barakan and our topic for today is this universally known in Japan as a mama. They’re not sporty, they’re not stylish, but if you want to negotiate congested urban streets or just go shopping, they’re probably going to fit the bill quite well. And these mama occupy a staggering 80% of the Japanese bicycle market. On today’s program, we’ll try and figure out why it is that they’re so popular. And my guest today is Mr. Yatagai Kazu. Welcome to the program. Hello. I am Yatagi Kazu. Thank you for having me today. Yatagay Kazaw is the president of the bicycle safety utilization study group. For over 50 years, he has been engaging in various activities to promote cycling. Are there any rules for what actually constitutes a mammachary? Mama, there’s actually no official definition of a mama. Okay. Mamaachari first appeared around 70 years ago. They were designed specifically for women to use. Mama means mother and chatty is a colloquial word for bicycle. Mamaachi is a combination of those words. Okay, I hear that they’re even being exported now. People abroad are now familiar with them, too. Mama, they are even sold under the same name, Mama. Well, it has something of a ring to it, doesn’t it? In Japan, one in two people own a bicycle. Demand for bicycles is growing particularly in cities. It’s due to a growing interest in a healthconscious lifestyle and the fact that people avoided using public transportation during the COVID pandemic. Around 80% of bicycles in Japan are mama which are also called city cycles in Japanese. They are the most popular everyday use bike. Mama Chad have many features that you won’t find on other types of street bikes or sports type bikes. First, there’s the basket attached to the handlebars. You can put your bag and other belongings in there. Sports type bikes don’t have baskets, so if you have things to carry, you will need to put them in a bag that you can carry across your body or on your back. Mama Cheddar handlebars curve up at the ends. That makes them easy to reach and hold. They also let you sit up straight and keep a good eye on the road ahead as you cycle. That’s not the case with a sports type bike. The handlebars curve down, forcing you to lean forward while lifting your head to make sure you don’t crash into pedestrians or cars. Another feature is the shape of the frame. Sports type bikes have triangular frames, but mama frames are U-shaped. This shape makes them easy to ride for people wearing skirts or loose- fitting pants. Other notable features are the guard over the chain and mud guards over the tires. These prevent clothes from getting caught in the chain or getting dirty with mud when cycling on a wet road. And then there’s the handy kickstand. It lifts the back wheel right off the ground, keeps the mama standing up straight, and prevents it from falling over. Thanks to the kickstand, the bike will stay upright even when it’s not being ridden. Another essential mama feature is the carrying rack. This can be used to securely attach and transport larger items. And for those raising small children, this is the vital space where a child seat is attached. Mama are also vital in the working world. They are a must-have for newspaper delivery people. Mamaachi are used by postal workers delivering the mail, too. Even police officers use Mama for their street patrols. Mama Chad’s everyday convenience makes them a versatile and muchloved form of transportation in Japan. What kinds of mama are sold in Japan’s urban areas? We visited an outlet of a major bicycle store chain to find out. They certainly have a lot of bikes in here. And are all these mama? Some of them. Yes, they are. Originally, mama were made for women, but now everyone rides them, so they are made in all kinds of ingenious designs. This is a typical mama. This bike has a number of gears on the back wheel. All right. Changing the rear gears makes it easy to cycle up a gentle slope. What about this one? It looks almost the same as the previous bike, but something is different. What’s that? Take a look at the basket. It’s huge, isn’t it? And try lifting it up, please. It’s quite heavy. Oh yeah, it is. It’s heavy. Actually, it is for students who cycle to school and it’s geared more towards male students. The bags they take to school are big and heavy. So, the basket has plenty of room. Huh. Male students are often quite solidly built. So, you know, that’s why the bike is heavy. Ah, this one has a basket on the front. And there’s a basket cover, too. It protects the contents from rain and wind and from purse snatches, too. Why don’t you put your hands inside? It’s warm, isn’t it? The covers provide protection from the cold in winter, even without gloves. All these ingenious additions give Mama an even wider range of uses. I think that’s one unique thing about Japanese bicycles. Next, Peter and Yatagai visit a company that makes bicycle parts and accessories with a particular focus on child seats. Hello. Hello. Pleased to meet you. Pleased to meet you. Okay, this is my image of a mamachari. It’s got at least one child seat and usually two. These days, the standard mamachari is for three people. One child seat in front and one behind. That’s typical. And they all have seat belts, of course. For example, these have magnets. Oh, and easily click into place. Uhhuh. These seat belts stretch and snap back. Oh, so a real mechanism keeps them securely in place. Very clever. Okay. And it’s got these cushions here to prevent the child from falling forwards, I guess. The back seat is for children from one to around six years old. So, there’s a big variation in size, right? Without these cushions, a small child’s body would move around in the seat. We’ve attached them to properly protect the child. Ah, I see. This is a mama with child seats for twins. Legally, the front seat is for children under four and the back seat up to the start of elementary school. So, one child sits in the front, the other sits in the back. But once they turn four, only one child can ride. We were asked to make this by mothers of twins. [Music] And of course, the Mamachari always has a big basket on the front. And I see some of these, the ones that only have one child seat, have another basket on the back. You can make the basket on the back even bigger. Oh. Okay, that’s pretty cool. There’s more. You can take the basket into the supermarket, do your shopping, pay at the checkout, then take it home. It makes shopping easy, doesn’t it? Yes, it does. Bicycles first arrived in Japan from overseas during the 1860s. Some wealthy individuals imported bikes from Europe and the US and started riding them for pleasure. Then in the late 19th century, former sword makers and gunsmiths turned their ironwork skills to making bicycles. [Music] They mainly made bikes with racks for transporting goods. These had tall triangular frames, were heavy, and had to be straddled. For those reasons, they were almost only used by men. It was an age when women were expected to be modest and mind the home, and there was little progress on developing bicycles for women. In the early 1950s, motorcycles started to spread rapidly in Japan. Sales of bicycles had been healthy up to that point, but now they became sluggish. Bicycle makers sensed a crisis and started to develop a new kind of bike targeting women. The first model was launched in 1956. It was different from previous bicycles and became popular for its low saddle and U-shaped frame, which allowed it to be ridden while wearing a skirt. As the Japanese economy boomed, so did mammachary sales. A mama was one of the three most essential items for new brides along with a refrigerator and a washing machine. The new mama bike provided women with more opportunities to spend time outside the home and to work. In 1993, Japan saw the launch of the world’s first pedal assist electric bike. It was developed to assist women pedal uphill and carry heavy loads and this helped to make mama even more popular. Peter and Yatagai have come to a bicycle manufacturer in the city of Kashiwara in Osaka. They hold a domestic market share of more than 60% in pedal assist ebikes. Let’s take a look at the mechanism of these pedal assist ebikes and how they work. As well as the main chain ring, pedal assist ebikes have a smaller cog powered by a motor. As the rider pedals, the motor helps turn the main chain ring around faster. When someone pushes hard on the pedal, that means they need assistance. So, the motor provides lots of power. On the other hand, when they pedal lightly, they don’t need so much assistance. Too much power can be dangerous, so it gives just a gentle push. The mechanism is designed to provide only what is needed when needed. The assist function automatically turns off when the bicycle speed reaches 24 km hour so that it doesn’t go too fast. [Music] This is a bicycle designed to carry two children. Young mothers are likely to use this bike, but when the seats are too high, it’s hard to lift children up. So to keep the seats as low as possible, we’ve given it smaller wheels. The handlebars are semi-logged. When the bike is in this position, but when the kickstand is raised, the handlebars are released. And when the kickstand is lowered, they are semi-locked again. It’s to keep the bike stable when children are being lifted on and off. Interesting. Okay. There’s also the kickstand itself. It is quite wide and functions like a lever. Just step on it here and it comes down quite easily. This is our test course. We’ve put a doll that weighs as much as a real child onto the bike. Okay. Shall I go up? I go up this one. This is Peter’s first time going up a hill on a pedal assist ebike. Oh wow, that’s amazing. There’s no way he could have done that without the pedal assist. It’s so easy. How was it? Yeah, it was so easy. You just you touch the pedals and it get zooms away. It seems almost too easy. I mean, that’s not really a bicycle anymore, is it? You really feel how powerful the pedal assist is, don’t you? Right. Cuz you often see, it’s usually mothers, not fathers, but with children going up quite steep hills and obviously with not very much effort. So, it’s quite obvious how powerful these bicycles are. [Music] Hello everyone and welcome to Plus One. I’m Kyle Card. In today’s edition, we’re going to explore the world of Deco Chuty or decorated bicycles. That’s right. There are individuals that not only ride their bicycles, but deck them out to the nines in extraordinary fashion. So, without further ado, let’s go check out a decoy. Kyle has traveled to Shimata in Shizawa Prefecture. Hello. Nice to meet you. I’m Kyle. [Music] 13 years old, is the proud owner of a decoy. Let’s see what it looks like. Wow, that exceeds all of my expectations. That is amazing. Ka, did you do all of this by yourself? Wait a second. Is this Is this a mama chuty? What exactly is a deco chut? In Japan, there’s a subculture of long-distance truck drivers competing to see who can add the flashiest decorations to their trucks. These trucks are called decora, short for decorated truck. So, so what’s this do? Just some kind of fluid or [Applause] Wow. It’s a homemade air horn. Can I try? That’s great. Wow. Is this GPS? GPS. How long did this take you? 10 months. Wow. How much did it cost? Wow. I have to ask, what got you interested in decoy? [Music] Thank you very much, Ka. Okay, this is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a good long while. It’s so creative, so unique, so loud and out there. Heck, I just might make one for myself. What more do you need in a bike? It’s got it all. [Music] There are places like this close to every station just about where people park their bicycles. But even so, you have quite a lot of cases of people just leaving bikes in the road and not coming back for them and then they have to be disposed of. And I can never really quite understand why that is. That’s because there’s a fee to dispose of bicycles. So they decide to just leave them there. Some people think that they can avoid the fee that way. Okay. In Japan, around 600,000 illegally parked bicycles are removed from streets every year, and it has long been a problem. One way to stop them from going to waste is to export them overseas. Secondhand goods stealers take bikes off the authorities’s hands before they’re disposed of, then export them to countries where they’re wanted. One such destination is the African country of Ghana. Every month, thousands of bicycles are delivered here all the way from Japan. This is a rural town about 150 km from the capital. Even this delivery of 100 or so bikes will quickly find buyers. [Music] A customer approaches the truck as soon as it arrives. He has chosen a Japanese-made mama, something he’s wanted for a while. It cost him the equivalent of 6,000 yen, the average monthly salary in Ghana. But this will shorten his commute by about 40 minutes each way. Ghana has many unpaved roads and Mama are an ideal mode of transportation because of their durability and maneuverability. [Music] road Japanese bicycle. My life has changed. In fact, I will not be late for work again. In towns around Ghana, there are lots of people riding Japanese mammachary for shopping, going to school, and commuting to work. These pre-owned bikes from Japan have found their way to faroff Africa, where they are cherished and support people’s lives. Meanwhile, in Japan, Mama are finding a new role as transportation for elderly people who no longer drive. Bicycle manufacturers are competing to roll out products specially designed for senior citizens. This bicycle has a slightly unusual shape. How has it been adapted for them? The frame is shaped so that you can use this as a footrest and it has been lowered to just 17 cm above the ground. This shape makes it easier for older people to get on the bike. On a normal bike, the front basket moves left and right with the handlebars, but on this, the basket is fixed to face forward at all times. So even if you fill it with something heavy, it won’t make the bicycle unsteady when you turn the handlebars. [Music] We added a back rest that allows the rider to lean back a little by supporting the back. This specially shaped saddle efficiently transfers power from the legs to the pedals. In the 2 years since the product was launched, the company has received orders from all over Japan. There are also other userfriendly mammach that are being developed. This manufacturer makes bikes for top caden bicycle races. But what kind of mammach does it make? Owner Matsat Hiomichi is a skilled bicycle builder himself. In a nutshell, this is a bicycle for someone who cannot bend one of their knees. But how is it different from a standard mama? The answer is that one of the crank arms is shorter than the other. There’s a reason why the crank arm is short on this side. It’s so that the rider’s knee doesn’t need to move much. When someone has had a knee operation or has a replacement knee, they can’t bend their knee properly. It’s designed to let them pedal with just one leg. Here, Matsuda crafts custommade bicycles for people who cannot ride ordinary bikes due to age or injury. These are some messages of thanks Matsuda has received from people who thought they’d never ride a bicycle again. [Music] Mamaachi are an everyday sight on the streets of Japan, but they are also an extraordinary invention that helps carry the dreams of people around the world. We’ve seen all kinds of mama today, including the latest designs. What did you think of them? I actually rode a bike for the first time in quite a long time today. I haven’t ridden them for quite a while and I’m not getting any younger and I try to walk as much as I can just to keep myself in shape. But um those battery assisted bikes really are quite impressive. And I was thinking you said they came along around 1993 which is just a few years before we started using the internet. And in the same way as I think probably nobody now can remember life before the internet, it must be hard for people who’ve brought up children since the advent of those electrically assisted bikes to remember what life was like before them. Yes, you could probably say the development of bicycles has changed society, but also that developments in society have changed bicycles. The recent developments in bicycles include mama for senior citizens and these things reflect what is happening in society. So, bicycles are a mirror of society. That’s what I think bicycles are. It’s been a good day. Thank you very much. You’re welcome. Thank you, too. Thank you very much. [Music]
[Skip Intro] 0:15
Watch more full episodes of Japanology Plus on NHK WORLD-JAPAN!
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/japanologyplus/?cid=wohk-yt-2507-japanology334-hp
More quality content available on NHK WORLD-JAPAN!
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/?cid=wohk-yt-2507-japanology334-hp
A mamachari is a bicycle that balances utility and comfort, perfect for getting around in Japan.