I’m thinking to exchange my European drive license to Japanese one, here in Aichi in reading over there they just make an interview without drive test… I don’t know it just was for COVID time or whatever… Anyone knows how’s is going on now?
And more important question… They remove your national drive license? When my spouse did at my home country, police remove her drive license, later Japanese Embassy send back to our home… Then actually she have both document… How is here?
Thanks!
7 comments
do you mean do they take your original license?
no!!!
Pretty sure Japan doesn’t have the authority to take away and cancel the validity of a document issued by a foreign government entity.
You keep any foreign driving license you have, but you need it for the paperwork.
This process is entirely country dependant. Second, most Covid restrictions have been removed bar limiting the number of people in the building and wearing masks.
Note, Hirabari limits how many foreign license exchanges it will do a day. It is not unheard of for people to get to Hirabari at 6.00 to be told the will have to come back another day.
Also recently they’ve been anal about bringing translators if you can’t speak Japanese.
Hello, there was a recent thread on drivers license conversion in the Nagoya subreddit:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Nagoya/comments/vyamb3/converting_drivers_licence/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Nagoya/comments/vyamb3/converting_drivers_licence/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I remember someone a while ago saying they had to “give up” their Italian license to drive in Japan, or vice versa though too. I dunno about that one.
I did a foreign license conversion (not the same as license exchange). I still have my original license. I effectively have two valid drivers licenses: One for Japan and one for my home country
They don’t take your out-of-country license from you, obviously, since you need to present it as part of the conversion process, and it’s still valid.
However, when you renew your Japanese license, they *do* take the old one as a precondition for receiving the renewed license, right at the end. As it’s managed by the police, that’s entirely their right.
I think that’s where the wires are getting crossed.
> *here in Aichi in reading over there they just make an interview without drive test… I don’t know it just was for COVID time or whatever*
Most developed countries don’t have the requirement for a driving test to convert the license (you hear about it here a lot since the US is one of the few countries that does have that requirement and there are a lot of Americans here) and this has nothing to do with COVID