Prohibitions and rules galore in Tokyo parks

One thing you will notice in many parks in Tokyo, especially the type that are located within a densely populated residential area, is that they are decorated with notice boards. Unfortunately, those notice boards often carry an array of prohibitions and rules for using the park. Some you would expect; "no smoking", "no golf", but others leave me baffled.

On the morning show on TV Asahi this morning they introduced a park in Tokyo with 15 large signboards of rules and prohibitions. The thing is most of them are duplicates. For example, they have three large signboards highlighting that motorbikes are not allowed in the park. When the governing body was asked about the amount of signs, they said they would not rather not have to put so many signs up but that it had proved necessary. When locals were asked how they felt, they said it was very off-putting and their children didn't feel comfortable using the park.

Some of the rules I can accept. For example, motorbikes have no place in a park and I can even get behind a rule against camp fires, which was among the list. But there are also rules I can't understand. For example, no balls and no bicycles. The latter I have written a post about; it's a real problem in Tokyo with 60% forbidding ball play. Again, the locals asked about these rules expressed their dismay and disappointment and mentioned how all their children want to do is ride their bikes and play ball in the local park.