Make a trip to any major electronics store today and you're bound to find a section selling drones. Once little more than toys for enthusiasts, today's commercially available drones come in all shapes and sizes and are used for all sorts of purposes, with prices ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of yen.
But the proliferation of drone technology has brought with it questions about security, and invasions of privacy. The central government and many localities around Japan have put into place a number of ordinances in recent years limiting and forbidding drones near certain locations. Last year the National Police Agency said there had been 68 cases of illegal drone flights, almost double the previous year's 36.
While a few years ago it was possible to fly a drone in a broad range of areas, that is no longer the case. Those who want to fly drones to get one-of-a-kind photos or video footage of a tourist site need to know the rules.