I have not been to any other country except for japan and my home country.
God it’s so annoying, I wasted almost a whole day. I tried to convert my license from home to a Japanese one. They made me wait for 3 hrs, that is not I am annoyed about but at last they called me and told that the waiting time for driving test is 4 months. If I am moving out then they advised me not to apply now, I am indeed planning to move out in June.
My disappointment was immeasurable. Why didn’t they tell that at start when I was giving them the documents?? Before when I even started gather documents I called the centre and asked about the waiting time for driving test and they told its like 1-2 months.
A year back I was trying to get an internet connection and a SIM card. It took 6 hrs to do both. Opening a bank account 4 hrs… why ?
Edit: I am in chiba. They told me I can take my test in August 1st week. I will be moving to Tokyo next month.
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1-2 months is pretty standard, but 4 months, that sucks! I’m sorry to hear that.
I have a very bad theory: this is how Japan keeps many more people employed. Antiquated systems, hoops to go through, paperwork ad infinitum when it could all be digital…
Same thing as having 4 people telling you where to cross the street whenever there is any work done.
Something is going wrong communication wise if it took 6 hours to get a SIM card.
For the driver’s license is pretty much like so. Other than that idk what’s wrong but I got my bank account opened/cash card etc within an hour (and that’s because I need obviously to fill in forms etc. we’re reasonably fast)… Sim card also pretty much the same… Maybe the last two varies depending on the carrier/banks..
If you are only here for such a short period of time, you could just get and use an international permit
Are you getting punished for not going through a driving school?
I doubt this is always the case, but I feel like a lot of systems in Japan are frustrating because some other quasi-related company makes its business out of navigating that system for customers. (See also the entrance exam/juku ecosystem and GTN)
When I purchased my mansion, I had to make an account with Tokyo Mitsubishi for the loan and it took between 1 – 2 hrs, including loan-related stuff.
Four hours is lengthy. To quote you, “Why?”
I don’t think there are many countries where the expats are happy with the way paperwork is handled. At least you do need to pay any bribes.
Schmucks. Schmucks all around. OP, you could also very well be a schmuck.
I’ve suffered bureaucratic nightmares. I may also be a schmuck. But at least I know how to
I don’t know if I’m just extremely lucky but it took less than an hour to get my SIM card and new bank account on the same day
What is your home country? It maybe took me 3 hrs. and I didn’t have to do a driving text. I also brought a bunch of paperwork from my home country that shows my driving record since I was 18.
Maybe it just depends on where you are. A four month wait to take the driving test is unheard of in this prefecture. I took it the same day I took the written test, although I failed it because I didn’t practice for it first. Depending on the test center and the test examiner, your chances of passing the driving test if you don’t practice with an instructor first are pretty slim.
Not saying Japanese is efficient by any means, but any government run organization (see DMV in the US) or regional monopoly (cable company or phone company in US) is going to have shit customer service. If you don’t need to fight for customers there is no reason to improve service.
If you don’t like the service at the DMV and boycott it you don’t get a license to drive. It’s the same in every country in the world.
Your experiences aren’t normal, you were unlucky
You can sign up for a test, and call every day to see if there is a cancellation. Pain in the ass, but it is a possible solution.
Changing my wife’s Japanese license to a British one was a pretty frustrating experience too.
(This was years ago mods. I live in Japan)
What you experienced IS NORMAL here. That’s what the locals have experienced since they were young and that’s how they know things are processed. It may be slow and annoying to everyone but Japanese people aren’t vocal enough to complain and cause some change.
>My disappointment was immeasurable. Why didn’t they tell that at start when I was giving them the documents?? Before when I even started gather documents I called the centre and asked about the waiting time for driving test and they told its like 1-2 months.
>A year back I was trying to get an internet connection and a SIM card. It took 6 hrs to do both. Opening a bank account 4 hrs… why ?
Because you don’t speak Japanese?
Good news is you are moving to Tokyo which you won’t need a car as badly
Nowhere in the world do 40 million people live in such small space.
It’s not a Japan problem it’s a Tokyo problem
It took me one month to be able to change my American license to a Japanese one — as in sit in a car with an officer and take the test on the given course. It all depends on where you take it.
I had my license, wanted to renew it.
Birthday is on 15th. Showed up 13th the previous month because I was going to fly home for 3 months on 14th.
Explained the situation asked if I should do it now. They said I can’t. Asked if it is OK to do when I come back. They said no. It is too late.
After a lot of back and forth I could do it that year but I lost a WHOLE Year on the extension.
While I sit there watching the video there is another gaijin who I tell the story and he says his license expired 6 months ago and they let him in.
Curious to know the home country. I would guess Germany or Netherlands, maybe more eastern Europe even. Or something like Singapore or HK maybe?
The entire country is built around the idea that every household has someone at home all the time to do this shit. Either a stay at home mom or a retired grandparent.
I think there’s a lot to it, but it seems that if there is not enough difficulty involved in accomplishing something, then they see it as not important. I think that’s why the bureaucracy is so annoying and also why my wife insists on cleaning the floor directly with a rag on all fours instead of using a mop with a handle. We’re making a BFD out of it to show it’s important, or to show how hard we’re working. Efficiency is secondary to presentation.
How about ‘token’ and ‘one time password’. Where you need one to get the other but can’t because you have neither. Fucking genius.
I thought you don’t need to take a Driver’s Test in Japan when you convert your DL back home?
Yea I feel you, seems like Tokyo / Chiba is overloaded and they don’t have the bandwidth to process everyone. My other theory is that this is much slower than usual due to the surge of foreign entries after the border reopened. A lot of people looked like they were getting licenses for work purposes.
I had a similar experience in Samezu. Went in July waited 4 hours for the inspection of previous license, and then got eye test, passed knowledge test. Last step is scheduling and the next appointment was 4 months… In November.
Come November I had an 8:10am appointment, and due to the process you test with your whole group of 10. I was the last spot and got on the course around 10:30. Unfortunately I brain farted and turned into the center lane for a right turn (it was actually opposing direction) and then auto failed. Tried to reschedule, next appointment was 4 months later.
Tried to reschedule but was denied because the knowledge test and eye exam are valid for 6 months (which I did in July). Took “only” 45 mins or so this time to repeat part of the process (make sure you bring an extra copy of the photo!), Paid application fee again, Redid vision and knowledge test, ended up back at the scheduling counter. Total time for the failure case was 4.5 hours. Would have been faster if I failed at the first driver spot.
4 months later retook the exam last week and passed with my proctor saying 非常によかった. However, since the process waits for your entire group to finish, I had to wait for everyone else to complete before the following steps to get the license. Total time was still around 4.5 hours.
Also fun tip don’t schedule right before your birthday because your license is valid for 3 birthdays. So, I’ll be coming back roughly a year earlier to renew 🤷♂️😣
Counterpoint. Today I was playing tennis and a ball hit me in the eye, it hurt quite a bit and I had some blurry vision for about 15 minutes. It was not an immeadiate crisis or serious injury but I decided I should get it checked out. I googled an eye doctor I have never visited in the parking lot, drove 5 minutes to the clinic and within in half an hour was getting high quality images of my eye taken and a consultation with the doctor who explained my injury, what to do and gave me a prescription. I was out the door within in hour and my wallet was only 3500 yen lighter.
This would be an impossible scenario in the US. I realize this doesn’t ‘make up’ for what you are discussing – the red tape of bureaucracy in Japan can be insane. However, I think it because of some of these annoying systems that I was able to be seen and treated today in such an efficient manner. Or maybe not…I don’t know anymore what the point of my story is.
Move to Tokyo then change the driver license
It took me just a bit more than 2 weeks to change in Samezu
From 2023/02/24 apply to 2023/03/10 driving test
Edit: add date
When I took my driving test I passed my forms to an officer sitting behind the desk. He passed the forms to an older gentleman who squinted at a laptop to determine the next available test date. The younger officer pointed to a calendar and I agreed to that date. The older officer entered my name in the computer using hunt and peck with his index fingers. The young guy gave me a paper with the date on it. I took the driving test four times. Same two dudes every time.
And I do not think that I will ever get used to it for real.
Strange, I didn’t have to wait very long when I did my license in Chiba. Like less than a week. But this was MT, I imagine AT takes longer.
One tip: call them EVERY day and see if there is an upcoming opening. Bug them. They will get sick of you and find an opening.
Out of the countries I’ve lived in, I’d say Germany was the worst in terms of paperwork and waiting times. Ever since that, Japan feels pretty streamlined to me lmao
> I called the centre and asked about the waiting time for driving test and they told its like 1-2 months.
> […]
> I will be moving to Tokyo next month.
Then why did you go to the test center in the first place? There is no point in starting a process that you cannot finish.
> Why didn’t they tell that at start when I was giving them the documents??
Did you tell them at the start that you’d be moving to Tokyo next month? No? Did you expect them to read your mind and somehow *know* that you would be moving next month?
> A year back I was trying to get an internet connection and a SIM card. It took 6 hrs to do both. Opening a bank account 4 hrs… why ?
You can get your internet connection, SIM card, and a bank account all with online applications and never even leaving your apartment.
Are you intentionally trying to live life on hard mode?
It took me…an hour to get my license here. Maybe 90 minutes. It’s never taken me more than 45 minutes to sign up for any of my internet providers except one and that was just cutting through all the up-selling. It DID take me a long time to open a bank account but that’s because I’m American and laws are really strict and so essentially it’s a risk for Japanese banks to open accounts for Americans. I’ve been Japan based for a quarter century, but spent considerable amount of time in a lot of countries in Asia, East Africa and the Middle East and I will take how things are done here every time. Only in China were things sometimes done “efficiently”, but it was random and so often wasn’t done correctly, or once I left the place nothing was done at all, or was fraudulent.
I don’t drive but why is there a wait at all? Do these tests take hours and there is only one car?