Hello everyone,
Going directly to the point, I have a driver’s license in my country but I can’t translate it because it’s not on the list of countries that can do it.
Because I want to make a driver’s license in Japan I need to retake everything from the start.
Which by itself it’s not a problem but the problem is the language. Is the test in Japanese quite difficult? I know Japanese but I just don’t know the specific special terms and I’m afraid that I won’t have too much time to learn those words because I’m still attending University and working at the same time.
Dis anybody if you took it in English and could you give me some information about the hardness this is really pay off to take it in English or such.
Thank you in advance!
EDIT****** I live in Kyoto.
4 comments
You can take the written test in English but you will have to be able to communicate with the test examiner when you take the driving test and the odds are low that you’ll get one who can speak English. There’s almost no chance that you will pass the driving test without practicing with an instructor first because it isn’t based on real-world driving. There are things that you need to do during the driving test in order to pass it that you won’t know to do if you don’t practice with an instructor before taking the test.
First, we need to know where you do you stay? at least city name so that people can point you to nearest possible driving school that offer course in English.
When you say retake everything from start, that will be enrolling yourself at a driving school for the full course. One of the popular/only? driving school that provide English course is [Koyama Driving School](https://www.koyama.co.jp/english/).
I couldn’t directly transfer my license, but I was able to take a shorter, 10 question English multiple choice test (much longer if you don’t have a license at all). It was easy and straightforward.
You need to be able to understand enough Japanese vocabulary for the road test.
You don’t -have- to go to a driving school (this is a misconception that even most Japanese people have-there’s no legal requirement to attend a driving school). As long as you can pass the written and road test, you can get the license.
I personally did pay Koyama driving school for 4 hours of practice on the course, since there are special maneuvers that are specific to the Japanese test. First three hours we did all English, 4th hour I asked them to do it in Japanese so I could learn the correct Japanese terms and how to respond. Passed on the first try.
When I did my test, I trained with a private instructor who spoke English.
I didn’t need to communicate with the Tester, only listen – and not even that, as I knew all the instructions due to them being set courses which I practiced beforehand.
The first part was on a course built on site at the test center (off road).
There are many “obstacles” but I think there were three different ways around the track, we practiced those routes and what to do at each point.
The second part was on the road, one of 6 potential courses A1,2,3, B1,2, C1 – All the same roads, but set routes. I was able to find them on YouTube even.
When it came to the tests, the Police Officer would give me an instruction in Japanese but I’d know what he meant only because I’d already practiced these courses a million times. I got to the test center when they opened as I wanted to be the first to sign up (A1 was the shortest and easiest on-road-test and that’s the one I passed).
The written tests were in English and I was made to study the papers, I learned A,B,C or D for each question as opposed to actual driving theory. Most folks I saw cramming with apps before this test were basically doing the same thing.
I don’t think I learned to drive per say, only how to pass the tests, which it seems is what you’re looking to do anyway.