I have been in Tokyo a week ago and that they want to do "something" to affect the behavior of cyclists is absolutely unsurprising to me. Cyclists are definitely a problem in Tokyo. They ride like maniacs, always on sidewalks, even if there are bicycle paths on the road. The actually surprising thing was that the otherwise very ordered and rule-abiding tokyoites are so chaotic when it comes to bicycles.

Now where I am from every school kid gets to take part during a days long bicycle safety introduction and after that most citizens will be relatively ok to ride practically for the rest of their lifes. In Tokyo it seemed to me that tokyoites seemed to have declared bicycling a rule-free space for themselves. I have been there two weeks and witnessed 3 near accidents on the sidewalk.

I am not a fan of bureaucrats, but we can't assume people are able to create a good outcome just by themselves without education, guidance, rules and enforcement. The best way is to educate your population early on on how move in a public space using bicycles. But if you have a problem to solve right now the next best thing is the law.