namenya 0 Posted November 25, 2002 Share Posted November 25, 2002 I just found this out... It seems that in July this year the road rules were changed such that any person living in Japan for more than 12 months must have a Japanese licence to drive legally. Any other licence (including valid international driving permits) are considered invalid once you've lived here for more than 1 year. You have to leave the country for more than 3 months in order to get another 1 year of non-Japanese licence driving... http://www.relojapan.com/general/polling/information.asp?spl=0&from=1&formon=November&foryear=2002 This unfortunately affects me, so I've got to decide whether I go and get a licence for the occasional driving I do, or if I should just resign myself to using the train... Anyone got any experience in getting a Japanese licence? Link to post Share on other sites
Sharon 0 Posted November 25, 2002 Share Posted November 25, 2002 Where are you from Namenya? It's pretty straight forward to get a Japanese license if you are e.g. from Britain or Australia or other countries where they drive on the left. Just need to get JAF to translate your home countries license, take a simple eye test, pose for a photo and then sit through a lecture (all in japanese). then you get your license that day, though depending on the prefecture, the whole thing can take about 5 or 6 hours (the lecture in Hiroshima was 2 hours!!!). If you are from a country where they drive on the right, you actually have to take a driving test as well as the above. I've had quite a few friends who failed it as they are quite strict on the finer points - like they are at home too when you first get your license, but as many people who are changing their license have been driving for quite a while, they have gained bad habits and gotten lazy about some things. I think they also have to take a written test, so you may need to swot up on your road signs etc. I was really lucky I was a Brit otherwise I might not be driving now! Be careful about the expiry year when u get it. I didn't even think as a british license is valid for 50 years and so I let my Japanese one expire (luckily I wasn't stopped for anything). I had to spend a full day at Akashi getting a new one. Link to post Share on other sites
namenya 0 Posted November 25, 2002 Author Share Posted November 25, 2002 Excellent - being an Aussie is always an advantage. I'll have to work out a time to go and get it... sitting around in bureaucratic offices all day is such a pain though. Link to post Share on other sites
danz 0 Posted November 25, 2002 Share Posted November 25, 2002 I don't like this one bit... actually, I got pulled over about 2 weeks ago (running a red light...)...the copper was blabbing on and on about how I need a japanese licence...he got really pissy about it and threatened to hand-cuff me...I kept telling him "of course I can use my internatinoal driving licence! This is a rental car!" (which it is actually...courtesey of my company )...well...I got away with it again...but these cops are getting more aggresive these days... danz Link to post Share on other sites
OzOzOz 2 Posted November 25, 2002 Share Posted November 25, 2002 I didnt know that either. I think I will just ignore this thread... Link to post Share on other sites
miteyak 0 Posted November 25, 2002 Share Posted November 25, 2002 I believe it was always that way, but recently they've decided to crack down on it. Recent spate of foreigner car accidents apparently triggered this. Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted November 25, 2002 Share Posted November 25, 2002 ozozoz, if you get in an accident you are not insured. might be expensive if you kill someone... Link to post Share on other sites
enderzero 0 Posted November 26, 2002 Share Posted November 26, 2002 Isn't it incredibly expensive to get a license in Japan? Link to post Share on other sites
namenya 0 Posted November 26, 2002 Author Share Posted November 26, 2002 I didn't know that the cops were cracking down on it. But then I didn't even know that I was driving illegally until yesterday. miteyak: It seems that until July it was just an 'administrative recommendation'. In July it was upgraded to an enforceable law. Penalties are fines or up to 1 year in jail. The biggest problem is with insurance - if you are in an accident, then you aren't insured, although it seems the insurance company might pay out for damage to the other party, just not damage to your own car. This seems pretty optimistic to me - insurance companies usually try to write you off totally if you even sneezed on the contract, let alone driving without a licence. If you read the link I posted earlier, all of the questions are talked about: cost of a new licence, what happens with insurance, etc. Major pain in the arse! Link to post Share on other sites
oblivion 5 Posted November 26, 2002 Share Posted November 26, 2002 I had no idea about this either. What if I had not read this post? How am I supposed to find this out? Is it my responsibility to mysteriously "know" this somehow? Hmmmm Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted November 26, 2002 Share Posted November 26, 2002 From the site linked to above "Why has the law been changed one may ask? According to our contacts in the local authorities and from research conducted by our legal advisors, the intent of this change in law is to stop Japanese citizens, who have lost their licenses due to driving offences, from obtaining a license and international permit in a foreign country which would allow them to drive legally in Japan." That is so funny. That's almost on a par with Malnuma's excuse for their licensing arrangements. All of the laws pertaining to driving that inconvenience foreigners so completely are all originally intended (apparently) to stop Japanese people doing naughty things. You'd have thought they could apply a simple control such as saying 'you look Japanese to me, so why are you using an international (or Somalian) license to drive in Japan?' Looks like they didn't think of that one. I wasted 2 working days trying to prove that I had been in England for 3 months after I got my license. This requirement was put in place to stop Japanese from paying to go to England to take the hilariously lax (NOT) English driving test, and using the English license to drive in Japan. A likely scenario that, you'd have to agree. (On one of the days at the 'Safety Center', I was moved to use the Japanese curse 'shine! (die!)' to one particularly bovine official, the only time I've ever used such an expression in public.) Link to post Share on other sites
Sharon 0 Posted November 26, 2002 Share Posted November 26, 2002 it's only expensive if ur getting a license completely from scratch ie u dont have one from home. its so easy to get a japanese one (a bit harder for people from countries who drive on the right admittedly) that I dont understand why more long termers dont get one. Link to post Share on other sites
Sharon 0 Posted November 26, 2002 Share Posted November 26, 2002 Oblivion, ignorance is no defence in most countries. I think theyd let u off the first time though, just pretty tough if ur first time to have an incident is an accident I suppose. Link to post Share on other sites
oblivion 5 Posted November 26, 2002 Share Posted November 26, 2002 Sharon yeah I realise that, but how on earth am I supposed to know about it in the first place? I should be checking the "new laws" posted in Japan, in Japanese or something ??? Link to post Share on other sites
miteyak 0 Posted November 26, 2002 Share Posted November 26, 2002 I hear what Ocean's saying. In Britain they don't stamp your passprot when you arrive back in the country. Since I left soon after getting my license, I could only get a beginners license, meant to wear a leaf on the back of your car. They just wouldn't accept that, on leaving Nepal and arriving in Egypt, I had to have been somewhere for three years. I guess I got my degree by correspondance on the Jumbo, hovering somewhere above the Arabian sea. Link to post Share on other sites
miteyak 0 Posted November 26, 2002 Share Posted November 26, 2002 When you get yer license though, the next big joke. The seminar to get it renewed after three years!!! Link to post Share on other sites
namenya 0 Posted November 26, 2002 Author Share Posted November 26, 2002 What's the seminar? In order to get a licence renewal does everyone have to sit through some sort of refresher course? Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted November 26, 2002 Share Posted November 26, 2002 I had to watch a 'safety video' for 40 minutes. Did you know that you're not supposed to drive after drinking, and that you must put your lights on when it's dark? I had forgotten completely... Link to post Share on other sites
miteyak 0 Posted November 26, 2002 Share Posted November 26, 2002 A rather dull individual comes to the front of the room. He talks, a video is played, he talks some more, everyone sleeps (I think one guy was even snoring). He finishes, names are called, one by one everybody wakes up and collects their new license on leaving. Link to post Share on other sites
mogski 0 Posted November 26, 2002 Share Posted November 26, 2002 The 40 minute seminar is if you have been a good driver and not been ticketed in the time of validation of you liscence! Try the 2.5 hour one for size! 40 min video and then the rambling of some ex-cop about the changes to the law followed by his grandchildren type stories of his days on the job! I once tried to tell a cop after being pulled over for failing to stop, that in my country stop lines are usually yellow and not white as the I had just gone through was. He told me that in as much as I had a Japanese liscence I should know what they can look like in Japan! I really wanted to tell him that I went with the papers, paid my money and go my slip, but I though this would only make matters worse. Oh if you need to get your liscence renewed in Japan and you have been ticketed there are only 2 places in the whole area that you can do it and both are nowhere close. Oh and there is usually thousands of other people there doing the same thing too so be warned. Good bye paid leave day. Link to post Share on other sites
indosnm 0 Posted November 27, 2002 Share Posted November 27, 2002 I was (and still am putting off) getting my japanese licence due to the chance of actually being fined for speeding fines. Last year I was flashed and busted on those awsonly clear cameras(wouldn't let me keep the pic!) @ that time my Int licence had expired and made a bs story about it expiring just after the pic was taken and was sent back to get a new one! They threatened to check up on interpol, I just laughed and said go for it! 14mnths later and i havent recieved the fine yet....? But due to insurance concerns i think I will get it now, especially with my wife (and kiddy on the way) to look after, still if I get caught play that NO SPEAKA JAPANESA! and be nice smile and get let off yet again! Link to post Share on other sites
Dokumanju 0 Posted November 29, 2002 Share Posted November 29, 2002 i had to get my license a few weeks ago. a pretty strange day all round. First u go to the licensing centre but u have to wait for the special license person to show up b4 u can get started. okay no prob, it's just 30 mins. so i wait and then there's 2 official looking people there. i cruise up. one's an old dude, he looks like a nice guy. The other is this lady yelling at sum brazilian people. line up for the guy i think to myself. i get to him and he gets up and says go over to the nazi lady. so i bounce off the counter and head over to her. i get 30 mins of bizarre questions like what were the questions of my written test that i took like 10 years ago. I'm humoring her but it's hard cos she's yelling at me in her gestapo voice. i can't help, i can feel myself bending over in weak bow, i just want the damn license. a philipina lady shows up, For a brief 5 minutes she has a new target, belittling this poor pinay lady cos apparently the application time has closed. she turns back to me and we go thru another 5 mins of interrogation about what colour p plates i had and then she asks me to wait. No prob, so i wait. a few hours later, an eye test and a video/lecture later, nazi lady shows up with my new license. I can see the steely glaze lift from her eyes, the edge disappearing from her voice. The power she holds over me is coming to an end and she knows it. i slip that precious piece of plastic into my wallet and i'm out of there like a bat out of hell. well, that's my license story. time to go to bed. Link to post Share on other sites
danz 0 Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 just got a notice from the us embasy mailing list...sucks ne.... --------------------------------------------------------- International Driving Permits (IDP) --------------------------------------------------------- "Residents" are expected to convert or obtain a Japanese drivers license. Persons using an international drivers license who are resident in Japan can be subject to fines or arrest. The exact boundary between "resident" and "not resident" is unclear. In practice it seems to involve more than simply visa status or length of stay in Japan and is determined by the police. We have heard from several Americans who were told by the police that using an International Driver's License for more than a year, or if you have a Japanese Alien Registration Card, or if you are planning to stay more than 90 days, or using one after exiting and then returning to Japan, or using one when you are residing in Japan, or using a license obtained by mail while you are in Japan, is illegal. In two recent instances, following accidents, Americans were charged with driving without a license, a serious offense. Driving without a license may also void your insurance coverage. You should thus contact local police for additional information before driving with an "International Driver's License". Link to post Share on other sites
phat 0 Posted December 4, 2002 Share Posted December 4, 2002 Thats a real bummer. Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts