--- title: Chibatman Is Batman of Chiba Japan description: Chibatman rides a three-wheeled motorcycle called the Chibatpod through city of Chiba in Japan canonical: https://time.com/3263742/chibatman/ author: TIME Photo article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-03T15:18:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:28.250Z og:title: Meet Japan's Batman og:description: Riding a three-wheeled motorcycle called the "Chibatpod" through the streets of Chiba, Japan og:url: https://time.com/3263742/chibatman/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91a8dcbca3171092/6986a1caf983e7f55e04f77e/japanese-batman-04.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A 41-year-old man going by the name of Chibatman rides his "Chibatpod" on the road in Chiba, east of Tokyo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet Japan's Batman twitter:description: Riding a three-wheeled motorcycle called the "Chibatpod" through the streets of Chiba, Japan twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91a8dcbca3171092/6986a1caf983e7f55e04f77e/japanese-batman-04.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Meet Japan's Batman by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Sep 3, 2014 3:18 PM UTC  Chibatman rides his "Chibatpod," a three-wheeled motorcycle. Chibatman rides his "Chibatpod," a three-wheeled motorcycle.Yuya Shino—Reuters by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Sep 3, 2014 3:18 PM UTC  A 41-year-old man going by the name of Chibatman, a portmanteau of his city Chiba and Batman, has taken to the streets of Chiba, Japan to deliver smiles instead of fighting crime. Yuya Shino—Reuters  Chibatman puts on make-up as he dresses up before going on the road. Yuya Shino—Reuters  Chibatman poses in his room. Yuya Shino—Reuters  Chibatman rides his "Chibatpod," a three-wheeled motorcycle. Yuya Shino—Reuters  The "Chibatpod" was inspired from the "Batpod" featured in the Dark Knight Trology. Yuya Shino—Reuters  People take pictures of Chibatman in Chiba. Yuya Shino—Reuters  A woman carrying a crying child poses for pictures next to Chibatman. Yuya Shino—Reuters ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3263742/chibatman/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3263742/chibatman/"},"headline":"Meet Japan's Batman","datePublished":"2014-09-03T15:18:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:28.250Z","description":"He rides a three-wheeled motorcycle called the \"Chibatpod\" through the streets of Chiba, Japan","url":"https://time.com/3263742/chibatman/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91a8dcbca3171092/6986a1caf983e7f55e04f77e/japanese-batman-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Photo","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-photo/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91a8dcbca3171092/6986a1caf983e7f55e04f77e/japanese-batman-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A 41-year-old man going by the name of Chibatman rides his \"Chibatpod\" on the road in Chiba, east of Tokyo","caption":"A 41-year-old man going by the name of Chibatman rides his \"Chibatpod\" on the road in Chiba, east of Tokyo","creditText":"Yuya Shino—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3263742/chibatman/","name":"Meet Japan's Batman"}}]}] ```