00:09 John Daub: Hey everybody! Welcome to Chiba! This is not Tokyo. You're not allowed to fly drones in Tokyo without a permit. But I wanted to bring you to this spot, which is a safe area for flying a drone, and kind of explain the rules and regulations for flying a drone in Tokyo. Which basically means you can't fly a drone in Tokyo unless you have a permit. But there are some rules that you can follow.

00:40 John Daub: There are a couple of rules that you need to know before you start to consider bringing your drone to Japan and flying it here. The first rule is that you should probably have at least 10 hours of experience, have a license if you have that in your country, and also adhere to the rules of Japan, which is the 30-30-30-150 rule. You have to be 30 meters away from cars, 30 meters away from people, 30 meters away from buildings. And you can't fly more than 150 meters up. I'll put a link in the description to the rules and laws of flying drones in Japan so you have a graphic and a point of reference for what I'm talking about.

01:22 John Daub: These rules have been around for a couple of years. So the wild west days of flying a drone are over! You have to understand that when you come to Japan now, you can't plead innocence and say you don't know what you're doing anymore. The rules are out there, they're established. And the police have like a Jack Bauer TCU-24 type technology to home in on you and find out exactly where you are. And if you fly your drone unmanned aerial device for five minutes or less, they will be able to track the aircraft and find out where that signal is coming from. And then you're going to have patrol cars all over the place. So don't do it. Don't go into the city over here.

02:10 John Daub: Kind of the honeymoon shot here. You can still hear me. This area is a very small patch of land which allows you to fly your drone without having a permit. And I actually know up here behind me, this is the strawberry farm where a guy let me film when I made the white strawberry. That's Ota-san's farm in the background. But this area is okay. This is Chiba Prefecture. If I turn the camera around, you'll see the city of Tokyo in the distance. And as long as I stay in this area, you're okay to fly a drone.

02:53 John Daub: So that's Tokyo on the other side of the river. And there's the city of Tokyo in the distance. The Skytree should be coming into view. There it is. You see it now? The Skytree, right in the center of the screen. So that's the city of Tokyo. You're not allowed to fly a drone there. But where I am, it's okay.

03:17 John Daub: There are laws that you have to follow. There have been a couple of YouTubers that made really good videos on the steps that you need in order to get a permit to fly in Tokyo. It takes a lot of time. And I'm going to put a link in the description to those videos as well. I don't want to mess up their names because I don't remember who they are. Once again, that's the Skytree in the distance. It's an extremely important video for anyone who wants to fly a drone to watch that and get a sense of what you need to do in order to fly the drone here in the city of Tokyo. This is not Tokyo. This is Chiba. This is a safe zone.

03:57 John Daub: DJI, the maker of this drone. I'm flying a Mavic Pro. A DJI Mavic Pro. The drone is in visual sight. That's another thing. You have to make sure that you have a flight path, a flight route that's determined when you apply for a permit. And always be within... you have to be able to see the drone. It has to be visible to you at all times. You can't be out of sight. And this is especially important if you're in the city of Tokyo or a crowded place where there's a possibility that if an accident happens, you could hit a car windshield and cause an accident.

04:48 John Daub: So, you want to be able to fly your drone in the city of Tokyo, which you can do. You just need to get the right permits. Hey, everybody! You just need to have the right permits. So, come back down here. I'm going to take you on a little tour of this area just to give you a little idea of this zone. This zone is really small, alright? And there's usually some Japanese residents who fly toy drones here. They'll fly hobby drones. They'll be racing the drones. Some of them have airplane drones. Some of them have helicopter drones, stunt drones. So, this is a very famous area. But it's very, very small. So, don't try to go into the city and take long shots from this area.

06:07 John Daub: Once again, the rules will be in the description of this video later on. Smaller drones are okay. Definitely don't try to fly the DJI Inspire, okay? Like in the middle of the city. Don't try to fly it by stealth. Do not fly your drone after dark. Don't fly it at twilight. There are always helicopters flying around the city. Do not fly it over 150 meters, which is the established law in Japan. I can't tell you this enough. 30, 30, 30, 150. 30 meters from cars. 30 meters from people. 30 meters from houses. And 150 meters, don't go above that. Those are the established rules.

06:46 John Daub: Alright. So, once you know that and you have a permit, you have permission to film. This is a safe zone. Oh, one more thing before I fly away. On the DJI map, you're going to see that Tokyo Bay is not pinked out. Don't fly your drone in Tokyo Bay. Because there are helicopters. There are airplanes. Airplanes change their route depending on the weather. The paths, the flight paths are more important than your drone. So, if your drone hits a flight or hits a helicopter or crashes and hits a car windshield or a person, you're in big trouble. So, not only should you make sure you have insurance. I think it's a prerequisite to get the permit to fly in the city of Tokyo. When you apply, I think that application takes one to two, up to a month to get. You definitely need insurance. DJI gave me one year of insurance. And I have to renew that in a few months. So, make sure you have insurance. And make sure that you follow the rules. And once you've done all that, you can have some fun with your drone.

08:03 John Daub: Fly, get some nice shots of the city. In the distance is the Tokyo Skytree. This is Chiba. This is the river bank where I'm practicing. I'm watching the monitor. I'm going to keep the drone with an eye length, or visible. And I'm going to show you a little bit of the city of Tokyo. There is the Tokyo Skytree. You can see that in the distance. So, let's go up.

08:30 John Daub: Wow, what a beautiful day. I think you can just see Tokyo Tower on the left side there. So, I'm at 50 meters. And I don't want to go too much higher because there is some wind velocity. And the Mavic Pro is really good in high wind situations. But because I'm so close to the city of Tokyo, there's no reason to take any risks whatsoever. I'm at 70 meters. And I'm not going to go over 100 meters. Wow, that's so beautiful. Look at that. You've got the whole city of Tokyo up there.

09:26 John Daub: Alright, now I'm approaching 90 meters. And 100 meters. Okay. Wow, that's beautiful, isn't it? Look at all those buildings down there. Ah, that looks so clear. I'm going to pan around. I think you can see Tokyo Tower to the left of the Skytree just a little bit. And if the weather was clearer, you'd be able to see Mount Fuji in the distance.

09:58 John Daub: So, you can see almost the limit of Tokyo Tower. And you can see Tokyo on the left side of the city center. And I'm panning around. And this is now going towards Saitama in the north. And it'll pan around to Ibaraki. Sometimes you can see all the way to Mount Tsukuba, which is the largest peak in Ibaraki Prefecture. And down there is the riverside. That's where a lot of the teams will practice baseball. There is the train line. I believe that's not the Narita Express, but it's close to that. And there's a factory down there. You don't want to go flying over there. You'll think it's like a spy plane or something. You can see the highways. Down there is Noda City, where I filmed the drone for the Edamame episode. And this is Chiba. You can see it's a completely different area compared to Tokyo.

11:04 John Daub: And right now, the drone is just above me. I don't want to take it out of the area that is designated as a safe area for flying drones. There you go. We're coming back to the river. And that's a 360. There's a university in the distance right there. And that's Ichikawa Station. And there's more baseball fields. Kids have school today. And we're back. And there's the city of Tokyo. Nice 360 loop around. The sun is actually right in the face. So I'm going to bring it down now. The sun is actually right into the camera, so there's going to be a glare. But I want to show you. I'm going to bring this drone down now.

12:13 John Daub: So we're down to 80 meters, 70 meters. I don't have any drone shots of the city of Tokyo because I haven't applied for a permit to take these shots. But it's something I'm going to do in the near future. And you need to have a permit. I'm telling you right now, I've had friends, not even friends, just other YouTubers that I know, that have flown the drone, tried to do it in stealth to get quote-unquote epic shots of their drone in the city. And one of them was arrested, I believe. And he blamed the police, which really shocked me. How can you blame the police for doing their job? Everybody knows that you're supposed to have a permit to fly in the city of Tokyo. And if your way of thinking is what's the big deal, you've already lost the battle. Because the big deal is that you could crash, you could do a lot of harm. And as safe as you think that these drones are, there's always going to be some sort of a problem that you don't expect that will happen at a moment where you don't expect it. And when that happens and somebody loses their life, you can't go back from that.

13:19 John Daub: Always fly your drone safely. Always know the rules. Don't be a stunt pilot with these if you're doing it for video. Take your shots conservatively and add that in and make a better story. The whole purpose of the drone is not the coolness of flying it, but in order to get the shot that adds value to your video. Again, in Tokyo, you don't really have a lot of places to fly unless you have a permit.

13:45 John Daub: I've been flying this drone now for over a year. I'm pretty good with it, but I'm not confident enough where I could fly it where there's a lot of people. Do not fly your drone at events. Even if it's a safe zone, do not fly your drone at events around people, over people, trying to get epic shots. You just need to get permission first. You need to have a piece of paper with a stamp on it. From that agency, organization, local or national. And when the police come, you can show them that document and they're going to be okay. And they might even watch you fly the drone and have some fun with it. But without the proper documentation, don't even try to fly a drone in Tokyo.

14:25 John Daub: You can consider it. Apply for the documents. There will be links in the description. I'm going to say this multiple times because I care about you guys. I don't want you to get in trouble flying drones in the city of Tokyo for epic shots, which you're not going to get. If you need the shot, instead of having to pay the $5,000 fine that you'll have to pay when they catch you, you could buy the shots online from people who have bought the permit and taken those epic shots and add that in. You didn't take it, but that's enough to add to your story.

14:55 John Daub: So thanks everybody for watching this live stream. I hope you enjoyed the view of the city and the view of me from a distance. A little closer here. So I'll see you all in the next live stream at another time. I'm actually just talking to the phone, not the drone. See you later everybody. Low battery. Come on back, baby. Bye bye everybody.