Hi, this is a Skate-Rant, not to be confused with a Skate-RaMP.
As Caroline mentioned, we live in Tokyo.And I guess that around town, you could collect your fair share of "No Skateboard" signs.
Such as this one :
Today, in our neighborhood there were actually MenInBlack and more police than usual. I was cruising on a temporary pedestrian precinct (commercial small road which is closed to cars on sundays). A nice policeman was standing just at the corner of the street.
I saw him - he saw me. And boom, I got the verbal notice just when I over-skated outside of the pedestrian zone. Fair enough.
Coming from the country which started the global trend for the Kick Board / Razor back in 1999, I'm not sure I get the rationale. Unfortunately Kick Boards seem as dangerous as skateboards to me, the main point being that kids/adults rarely use full-protection on Kick Boards. You won't see me on a board without hand or wrist protections.
I won't discuss the motorized bicycles which are not differentiated from bicycles as far as regulation is concerned... full-helmets should be required.
Plus, from what I've seen, surf does not carry a negative image...
So that's my rant : let the long-boarders cruise. We mean no harm for anyone, the carbon trace is reasonable and it's a great relaxing exercise.