So Ive been running into a weird issue exchanging my foreign license in Aichi. Ive been told to go to this website for booking a 外国免許切替審査 at 平針 Hirabari about 4 months ago. Since then I have been trying to book appointments about 2 to 3 times a week at 730am when the appointments open.
Whats been baffling me is that the appointments are booked within a minute. For this reason I cant for the life of me finish and complete booking the appointment before its booked.
Two weeks ago I called the office to figure out whats going on. They simply told me its busy during that time and to keep checking back throughout the day for cancellations.
Ive been trying to no avail and am beginning to think something is up and that appointments are book automatically.
Does any have experience exchanging their license in Aichi and is this a common hurdle of the process?
This is the website I go to to book
https://www.shinsei.e-aichi.jp/pref-aichi-police-u/offer/offerList_initDisplay.action
Edit:
Thank you for all the replies! Ill keep checking everyday.
For a bit more context I need a car for my job, and Ill need to take the driving test since I am from a state in the US that is not exempted. Im worried about time so Im gonna try to contact as many people as possible.
Edit2: Also my IDP expires in March….
6 comments
A website nice!
The place in Shizuoka I went to had a ball cage and little number balls came out of it. If your number came out you got to get helped if not you had to go home.
So I am guessing this site is similar. It’s possible for a local driving school/s could have written a script to reserve slots faster than you could click so you’d have to either submit it faster then a bot with your own bot or just keep trying until the time there is space.
They probably have 1-3 slots a day and everyone is fighting for those. This is just one of their ways of trying to force you to go to a school and committing to taking the driving course from scratch.
This is an ongoing issue for the Hirabari driving license centre. If I recall there are only something like 20-30 slots a day and hundreds of people wanting them. I’ve heard that it helps to fill in the form (or have google autofill) before 7.30 and click the final buttons at bang on 7.30. Unfortunately you just have to keep trying because it is busy all year all the time.
Before the Website you had to go to the centre at like 4.30am to try and be one of the first 20 in the queue to do the conversion. If you were 21 or higher you had to come back another day.
There is a work around if you are disabled, pregnant or something along those lines. I also believe you can call on the day and see if there are any cancellations.
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The problem is this is an issue that effects people who have no say in how it is done and can be told to like it or lump it.
You just have to keep trying. It took me 2 weeks of getting up early, logging in before they go live, and typing my details in as quickly as possible before I could get an appointment. It’s a mess.
It’s been like that for a while. Lots of people can’t get an appointment. You also need to be able to fluently speak Japanese or they won’t let you in.
I exchanged my license at Hirabari, but I hired someone from a driving school who did practically everything for me. They booked the appointments, did the translations, drove me to/from the center to take my written and driving test and stayed with me the whole time giving me tips and advice. After calling the driving school the whole process took, I’m not kidding you, exactly 2 weeks. The week after I called them, the guy booked me a spot for my written test, then he was able to get me a spot the very next week for a driving practice slot and then the next day I did the the driving test. I passed the first time with 100%. It was about 50000 yen, but I’m glad I did it because of how fast and hassle free the whole thing was. Especially since getting my license and hearing everyone’s horror stories. Some people took them up to 6 tries! I can’t imagine having to repeat the whole thing 6 times. And going the ‘normal’ school route is even more intense! My husband said that to get his license he stayed in a dorm room and went to driving school full time for 2 or 3ish weeks, not to mention the astronomical cost of it all.