Driving?

So I can’t drive (no license)… I indicated this on my application, but I’m wondering if there’s still a chance I may be placed somewhere where driving is a necessity. Do any non-drivers have experience with this?

11 comments
  1. BoE’s specifically request ALTs who can drive if some of their schools require a car to get to. You’ll be fine.

    I think I remember hearing about one case where an inaka ALT requested a transfer and got it because even though they were placed near the school the only supermarket in the area wasn’t open by the time the ALT finished work and got to it. So they couldn’t feed themselves or go anywhere after a certain time.

    That was an extremely rare and unusual case though BoE’s aren’t that thoughtless…usually haha.

  2. No, you wouldn’t be placed in a job that you need to drive for in the course of work. But sometimes not driving for work ≠ easy living without a car. Some workplaces don’t require you to drive for work but still the area is so rural that it’s hard to do anything without a car. In rural areas the public transportation options can be useless and you’d be relying on walking/bike/taxi/friends with cars to do even basic things like buying groceries. Since you don’t have a license I wouldn’t sweat it too much because there is nothing you could do about it either way. There are also plenty of places where you can get by without driving.

  3. I do not drive at all, no license back in my home country. I was placed in the inaka and live 5 mins away from school, but it is so cut off from the city. I have to ride the bus for 1 hour and 20 mins to get to the closest train to the city, then another hour and half to get to the city itself. Amazon is my friend and when I do go to the city, I come home with lots of things after shopping from Daiso and other places. It is a pain but it is what it is.

  4. If you can get your license in time, I would 100% recommend doing so.

    You might end up in a city where owning a car would be impossible, but when you travel being able to rent a car will open up many exciting options.

    Equally, even without a license there is a chance you’ll be placed in the countryside where although you can get around with whatever public transport exists, it’ll be a pain in the ass.

    The example I always give is that for my placement, you needed to drive to get to schools and nearly all the JETs that got placed there could drive (myself included). However, there had been a few JETs who couldn’t drive and had to be chauffeured around by city hall/school staff – not fun for either party.

  5. Why do you think they have a spot in the application for it? Just for fun? Of course it’s used when deciding placements.

  6. The question about driving on the application is specifically about driving *for work*. So you could easily be placed in a small farming town of a couple thousand, but your house is right next to the school, so it’s listed as a non-driving placement. Nevermind the fact that you’re a 20 minute drive from the nearest hospital.

    Actually, all prefectural high school placements in Hokkaido are listed as non-driving because the HBOE doesn’t allow ALTs to drive to school. Hokkaido is one of the most rural prefectures and people definitely get placed in “non-driving” placements in super small towns.

    That said though, I have a friend in a super rural no-driving placement who decided to not get a car by choice (even though he has a license). He seems to be thriving, so getting a rural placement without a car doesn’t have to be the end of the world

  7. Get the license at home if you can. You could be placed out in the middle of nowhere (still next to your school, so **work** isn’t a problem) and have doing any number of random things be a huge pain in the ass. You might end up relying on others (yuck), using outdated transportation systems (because everyone **else** where you are has a car), or worse.

    If you do end up driving here, get onboard cameras. Japanese driving is generally much better than “back home” – but there are still nutters out there, and you as the “foreigner” who may or may not have Japanese speaking skills (if you don’t, **please** work on that, too), you definitely want as much help as you can. The cameras can help back up your story, which will likely be the difference between getting shouldered with most of the responsibility for any accident and getting it all covered by their insurance.

    Sorry for rambling.

  8. To follow up on the at least two people have mentioned getting a license at home first. A few words on this though.

    If you get a license now, you’d be able to apply for an International Driving Permit (IDP), which would technically allow you to drive in Japan for up to a year. However….

    By the end of said year, in order to keep driving, you would need to convert your home license to a Japanese license. The big catch is that one of the requirements is that you need to have held the home license for at least three months in your home country. Which means if you’re coming this year, at the end of the year on the IDP, you would have to start from scratch getting a Japanese license as there isn’t enough time to reach the 3 month mark. If you’re applying and planning to do JET next year, then as long as you have your home license for 3 months, once you get to Japan you can go through the process of converting your license.

    An IDP is not renewable and Japan will not allow you to make a run to go back to get a new one. You must go back, be in your home country for three months, then you can get a new one that Japan will once again recognize as valid.

  9. Unless you’re placed somewhere with good public transport, a car is *so* much more convenient. Biking and walking is fine but not fun when the weather’s not great.

    You can go to a driver school if you think you need a car here, but the con to this is the price. It’s expensive to have a car. If you’re not planning on staying longterm, just deal with biking in bad weather to save money.

  10. This happened to me! I got placed somewhere fairly rural. I was lucky enough to have a place that came with teacher’s housing (yay!) but it was a 45 minute walk from my school (grrr!) , which was a real slog in winter and rainy season. And even more annoyingly, there were no grocery stores in between. My apartment was also uphill (mountainous area), so using a bike to get around always meant an arduous uphill climb.

    All this became enough of a pain that I ended going to Japanese Driving camp and getting a license during the summer desk-warming season. The bright side – it only takes 2 weeks of full-time lessons and you can be driving your own car in less than a month. The downside is costs at least 200,000 yen to do…. In my case though, it was 100% worth it; life in my subsequent years has been so much easier, i’ve been able to go on so many road trips and visit spots that are not easily accessible by public transit whenever I want, and I’ll be able to exchange my license and continue driving in my home country when I get back.

  11. Not a non driver but when I lived in Japan I had a lot of non driver friends who were JETs and all of their school were accessible by public transport or walking and most of them were not allowed to drive to school but most of them struggled with getting around the local area so I often ended up driving people when they needed to go to the shops for example (I lived in a relatively rural area not terrible but also not great to get around without a car).

    A great way to get around this is to get a moped licence when you’re in Japan if you find yourself placed in the middle of no where. I had a couple of friends that did this and it was very easy. You do a written test and then the driving test is just a very short check that you can drive a moped without falling off then you’re good to go

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