Jitensha

The Japanese word for 'bicycle' is jitensha, written 自転車 in Chinese characters. This mostly how it is written, as can be seen in the signs below.

Jitensha o nozoku Bicycles excepted
	Jitensha riyō-sha no mina-san e. Koko wa jitensha riyō-sha no mina-san ga muryō de riyō dekiru basho desu. Kanarazu tsugi no koto o mamotte kudasai. To bicycle users This is a place for the free use of bicycle users. Please obey the following.

There is one place, however, where the characters are not used -- in road signs painted directly onto the road surface.

Jitensha Bicycles

This appears to be a case of simplification for safety and technical reasons. Kanji would require a larger number of strokes than is suitable for the medium of paint-on-bitumen. To ensure clarity, hiragana is thus used.

A Google search in August 2003 revealed the following distribution: