Japanese Drivers License

I took a half day off today and a half day off last week to take care of getting a Japanese drivers license. When you are a permanent resident, you can only use an International Permit for your first year. After that, you have to get a Japanese drivers license.

If you are from Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, or another half-dozen countries, this is a simple paperwork process. Those lucky people do not have to take any tests. Americans do have to take a written and practical driving test, though. Based on what I could research on the Internet, this is because drivers licenses are issued by the states and not the federal government so Japan cannot create a single, unified rule for all American drivers licenses. Americans still have a paperwork process to go through, though. You have to get your driver’s license translated at the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and then bring that, your foreigner registration card (外国人登録証明書 gaikokujin tōroku shōmeisho), a new photo, and passport to your local office. They will take the paperwork, give you a quick eye-test, give you the written test, and get you an appointment for the driving test.

The written test is ultra, ultra simple. It was a ten question, true or false test and you were allowed to miss two questions. The questions were so easy that you would have to be very tired not to get a perfect score.

The practical test is a lot tougher. Very few people who take the test pass on the first time because the inspectors are extremely picky. If you search on the expat sites about driver’s licenses, you will find a lot of people complaining about the practical test. You have to drive letter perfect and with exaggerated care in order to pass. There is a wiki site for the Ehime driver’s test that recommends that you actually vocalize your safety checks (Mirror OK! No one left, no one right, OK!, etc.) That might be a little overkill, I suppose, but it does get you past the test.

I took my test this morning but managed to fail it. The car needed a lot more brake than I was used to so I overshot a stop line early in the test and that was an automatic fail. Today was not really a fun morning… Oh well, I try again in two weeks.