So where I’m from, you insure the person on the car. If I have a car and my friend wants to drive it, I need to call my insurance company, pay a little to get them as a named driver and then they can use my car for a pre-decided length of time.
I was pretty shocked when my mother-in-law offered the keys of her car here and said I can use it whenever I want. How does that work? Am I like insured 3rd party on hers? She claimed that every car is insured when you buy it but I’m not convinced.
I don’t actually own a car but I have a full Japanese licence. Can someone explain?
7 comments
She might have 3rd party insurance. Look at her insurance papers first. Don’t take her word for it.
For example, my insurance is for me and my wife only.
The insurance that’s paid when you buy the car is the limited liability insurance. Actually gets paid when you register the car
It just depends on the details of the insurance policy. My car is insured for any licensed driver 35 or older.
Sometimes when you buy a car full coverage insurance is part of the deal .. I mean you pay but it’s an option… sometimes easy
I got offer 3 type of insurance when we bought our car. I suspect there’s more restriction if you have a bigger discount (gold license, etc)
* Only I can drive the car
* My wife and I can both drive the car
* Anyone can drive the car
To simplify it:
Assuming the person has nin’in hoken (for simplicity, call this full insurance), the insurance is attached to the vehicle, not the individual. There will be a limit regarding the age if potential drivers – you pay more to allow younger people to drive it. Mine are usually capped at 25 and older.
If they have jibaiseki (mandatory insurance) only, it’s still attached to the vehicle, but you should probably decline the offer of the vehicle. This only covers up to 1 million yen of medical costs to other parties, and none for you or your passengers. No property damage coverage, either. Run into a Ferrari or cause a serious injury to a motorcyclist, and you’re going to be financially ruined.
You have to look at her insurance policy to see who is and who is not covered. Sometimes it is specifically limited by person (owner only, or owner+spouse, or anyone) and sometimes it might be limited by age (25+, 35+).
Also make sure she actually *has* insurance and not only 自賠責保険 which isn’t really insurance. They will cover the costs to the other driver but will then aggressively come after you to reimburse them for what they paid out. You can lose your house, your savings, everything.