I’m considering bringing a new SUV from the USA or Australia to Japan, and have several questions:
1. According to USA, Australia or Japan law, do I have to have owned the car for a certain length of time for it to be legal to import it to Japan?
2. What is required as proof I own the car when importing it to Japan? Is the title/certificate of ownership in USA or Australia enough, or do I have to have some other documentation?
3. Is it prohibited to export from USA or Australia or import to Japan a car for which I possess the title/certificate of ownership but haven’t paid off the loan with which I bought the car? I ask because in Japan it seems if you get a loan at a dealership to buy a car, you don’t actually technically own the car until the loan is completely repaid. At least this was the arrangement that was explained to me when I bought a Toyota here 3 years ago. So am I considered by Japanese import law to not really own the car and not be allowed to import it to Japan until there’s proof the loan I used to purchase it has been repaid in the USA or Australia?
4. Is it hard to find mechanics who work on foreign cars that are of brands with few or no dealerships in Japan? For example, if I buy a Chevy, am I going to be stuck with just a couple mechanics in the Kanto region who will work on the car when it needs repairs?
5. Anybody have experience trying to get a foreign car worked on at an imported car dealership in Japan of the same brand but that doesn’t sell the same model? Is this possible? For example, can you get a Jeep Wagoneer bought abroad worked on at Jeep dealerships in Japan even though their model lineup doesn’t include such big SUVs? Can you get a Chevy worked on at the few places in Japan that sell Chevys of some kind but no Chevy SUVs?
6. An emissions test is required of imported cars before they can be registered to drive in Japan, but some import services can help you arrange to skip this test as long as someone else previously imported the same car year-model and passed the test. It’s not clear to me whether this is because those import services themselves had specific car models tested or they’re just accessing the proof/documentation of past tests that a Japanese government agency retains, such that I could deal directly with the government agency rather than hiring an import service to skip the test.
7. Has anybody gone through the process of dropping their own car off at a port abroad to ship it to Japan and going through all the paperwork to receive it and get it admitted to Japan and registered so it can be legally driven here who can speak to how hard, time consuming and expensive it is to handle it yourself rather than going through an import service? (I don’t speak or read Japanese very well but can cheaply hire people who do to make calls and fill out forms on my behalf and so, if feasible, would prefer this to the import services, which seem to commonly charge the cost of the car to be imported as their fee, in effect doubling the cost of the car).
Thanks in advance for any helpful replies.
2 comments
“7”. I (stupidly) did this and shipped a truck over here. This was a long time ago and back then container shipping was super cheap, so it was not a big loss. The amount of paperwork (and money) needed to register it quickly became absolutely not worth it, and I traded it for a kei truck to some shady car guys that kept coming by my house asking “can we buy this from you”.
The emissions inspection/test was quoted something around 600,000 JPY plus a bunch of other crap I forgot, plus you’d need to take a shaken on it once it was inspected/converted to match local regulations for emissions, bla bla. Plus the only center that could do it was in Osaka, so I’d have to drive the stuff there on temp plates and whatever… waste of time and money.
tl;dr: your idea is super stupid, do not do it. sell your foreign car, buy one here.
*unless you’re on military base then whatever, I heard they get all that stuff handled easily.
Can you ship a car being financed? Possibly. Not all lenders prohibit it, but I doubt many companies would say yes if you asked (although your lending contract may not call it out). In the US car lending model, you own the vehicle, but there would is a lien on the title. And many banks will physically hold the title which would prevent you from being able to complete the export paperwork required. If it is leased, it is likely a hard no as you don’t own the vehicle.
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Unless it is extremely valuable in Japan — not just unique — you won’t cover all the costs required to make it compliant. If it is new it is not a classic.
I’ve explored shipping one of my classic cars over (worth about $80k more here), but the paperwork has put me off which shows you how painful it can be.