So I have myself a bit of a situation and was wondering if anyone had any advice or resources.
To cut a long story short, my wife (Japanese national) and I (UK national) moved to Japan two months ago. We’re in Tohoku at the moment so quite a bit of driving is required, and I’m doing so on the International Driving Permit I got a week so before we left in late April. This of course is nominally ok to drive on for a year, after which I’ll need to switch my license over to a Japanese one. Ordinarily this would be no issue, but my license was only issued in January this year (due to loads of delays in getting a driving test due to Covid and the like). The upshot is that I’m literally 4 days short of the ‘3 months of living in your home country with your license before moving here’.
This is a giant pain in the arse of course. We’re moving down to the Kanto area next February so it isn’t as critical as it is up here in Tohoku, but naturally having a car and not being able to drive it does not help things. Going back to the UK for just a week is an expensive solution to the problem with prices as they are. This all leaves me with what I think are three options.
1. Shell out for a ticket back to the UK for a week to top up my time living there to three months, meaning I can switch my license to a Japanese one with much less trouble.
2. Start studying for the Japanese theory and practical tests and get a license here. One can take the test without having done a full driving school course, and the road laws in the UK are basically the same as they are here, but reading the theory test could very much be an issue as my Kanji is not great.
3. Keep driving until I plan to visit the UK (probably Summer 2023) on my IDP, however I’m aware this is an insanely risky option as the Japanese are very likely to throw the book at me if I’m stopped for any reason.
Does anyone have any advice on the Japanese theory and practical tests? These seem the best options unfortunately, so I wondered if anyone’s had to sail in the same boat as me.
Many thanks!
EDIT: Looks like I’m just going to go for getting a fresh license here at the testing centre. Thanks for the advice everyone!
7 comments
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When did you register your residence in Japan? It’s a long shot but you might try to argue that you were still technically living in the UK before the residence switch happened.
I honestly wouldn’t bother, though. Try to get it changed with the documents you currently have, wish for the best and if it falls through ask them about what steps to take for them to acknowledge it. They might agree that a week back in the UK would put you in the clear or tell you to go through the hoops while here. They do have English speaking license schools and tests in Japan so it’ll be a bit bothersome but you can definitely make it even in the worst case scenario.
Don’t waste your time/money on a trip to the UK, of course unless you want to go there for a holiday. Because that is what your trip to the UK would be considered as (a holiday) because you’re a resident of Japan now.
Which for the license exchange you need 3 months of residency. Not 2 months + 3 weeks residency + 1 week holiday.
Just commenting without expectations of this helping but in my case, my US driver license expired several years ago while living in Tokyo.
Now I live somewhere where having a car would actually be helpful and want to get a license, but since my US license expired I would have to “start from zero”.
In my case, it seems flying back to the US to get a license for 10,000 yen and skipping the otherwise required driving school is cheaper than “starting from zero” here, even with current airfare.
I had trouble with the fact that I had just renewed my license before coming back to japan, I had to show them my expired and current license in order to get a japanese one.
You got your first licence just before you came here? Or was it a renewal?
You don’t have to take the test in Japanese if you can’t read it. It can be taken in English too.