Just to put some perspective into pavement cycling in Japan, I would often hear news reports of people being killed due to accidents involved with pedestrians being hit by cyclists, especially when people cycled down shopping arcades. Injury [often serious] from collision with cyclists on the pavements over there is pretty common, so please don't take Japan as an example of where everybody gets on fine with pavements being used by bikes. In the bigger cities with police boxes on blocks it's usually harder for people to hit & run [but this of course still happens]. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/02/04/reference/cyclists-who-flout-law-face-charges/ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jan/10/japan.transport