FUKUOKA -- The Fukuoka Municipal Government is set to step up regulations on ad trucks and buses, which display large advertisements, to cover vehicles based outside the southwestern Japan city, interviews with city officials have revealed.

Currently in Fukuoka, only vehicles whose base of operations is within the city can apply for permits to display outdoor advertisements, but many of the ad vehicles are based outside the city. Officials are accordingly considering amending an ordinance to include those vehicles. It will decide on specific regulatory measures based on the results of a survey being conducted through March 2026.

Ad trucks constitute a type of outdoor advertising, and they are often used to promote products and events, but the flashy colors and noise of some vehicles, along with those plastered with ads for adult entertainment job sites promising high incomes, have become a problem in various places across the country as they disturb the streetscape.

Since April, the Fukuoka Municipal Government has been conducting what will be a yearlong survey around the center of the city, the Tenjin district and the area around JR Hakata Station. Results collected from 32 surveys between April and July this year found that a total of 196 of the 202 advertising vehicles spotted, or 97%, were displaying ads for adult entertainment-related businesses. The frequency at which the vehicles passed the survey locations was about one every 20 minutes.

Of the vehicles displaying adult entertainment-related ads, officials were able to confirm the license plate numbers of 168 vehicles, and when officials checked the bases of operations of those vehicles under the Road Transport Vehicle Act, all of them were outside the city. A total of 120 of the vehicles were based in the eastern Japan prefecture of Chiba, three in Saitama Prefecture north of Tokyo, and 45 from other parts of Fukuoka Prefecture including the town of Kasuya.

When setting up outdoor advertisements in Fukuoka, it is necessary to apply for a permit under the city's outdoor advertising ordinance, with some exceptions. However, because ad trucks are mobile, the ordinance currently applies only to vehicles based within the city. As a result, the city has been unable to regulate the many ad trucks based outside the city under the ordinance.

According to city officials, by amending the ordinance, the city aims to require permits for ad vehicles driving within the city, regardless of their base of operations, to bring them under regulatory control. However, regulating specific advertisement content, such as adult entertainment, is considered difficult at present due to the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression, and this looks likely to remain an issue.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government similarly strengthened regulations against advertising vehicles in June 2024, adding vehicles with out-of-Tokyo plates, which were previously exempted, to the regulatory scope. Ads that could significantly distract drivers, such as those using electronic displays, were banned, but the regulations did not extend to the content of advertisements itself.

The central Japan city of Nagoya, meanwhile, conducted a survey of residents from July to August 2024, and is considering a response.

(Japanese original by Shizuka Takebayashi and Masanori Hirakawa, Kyushu News Department)

Fukuoka set to ramp up regulation of ad trucks to cover vehicles from outside city