My girlfriend owns a car and has car insurance.
I have my driving licence photo ID card and an international driving permit applicable to Japan. I do not have my own car insurance.
I wanted to know if Japanese car insurance typically covers third-parties (such as myself) to drive the insured person’s car. I don’t have any specific details about my girlfriend’s insurance, but she says the policy documentation says a third-party will be covered to drive the car, and there is no need for me to have my own insurance, and the fact I don’t have a Japanese licence isn’t an issue. However, I want to double check because if I’m in an accident, there may be repercussions if her interpretation is inaccurate.
Of course, the ultimate solution is to carefully read through the documentation to check, but I ain’t read so good, and my girlfriend seems fairly satisfied I’m covered… But maybe other non-Japanese people can confirm if this is typical of car insurance in this country.
6 comments
Both types of insurance are common. There’s no way to know outside of what she tells you or reading the policy.
If I’m not mistaken, you don’t have a license to drive a car in Japan, so I don’t believe there is any insurance that covers you. Are you mistakenly assuming that you will be compensated even if the other car in the accident is uninsured?
Most automatically cover spouses by default. This might include common-law. But outside of that it’s probably an option, which your gf will know if she is paying for or not.
If her insurance doesn’t cover you, you could go to 7/11 and buy insurance from their kiosk. It’s something like 500 yen for a day.
> she says the policy documentation says a third-party will be covered to drive the car, and there is no need for me to have my own insurance, and the fact I don’t have a Japanese licence isn’t an issue.
Then that’s it. Just have her call her agent to confirm the details, and done.
Like other people said, the only way to know that is to check the insurance contract or contact the insurance agency and ask them.
The price of insurance varies depending on who is covered by it. For example, I have two cars, but one of them is only driven by me, so that one only covers me. The other one covers only me and my wife.
In your case, since it’s your girlfriend car, the only way you’re covered is if the insurance coverage is set to “anyone”.
This is something very important, so be sure to check it.