Step 1 of Japanese Driver's License...Success!

Today I had the day off because in place of having class and school on Sunday, I had today off. It's a random day off, I know....but it's better than nothing, right?! So today I planned on going in to the Japanese version of a DMV. They call it the License Center which is basically the automotive place to take care of things that you would do at the DMV in the States.

So this morning I made my way up toward Chiba city to the License Center in order to first get my American license translated into Japanese. Apparently, you must get it officially translated by the JAF (Japanese Automotive Federation) which is kind of like AAA. So I went and did that and it only took around 30 minutes. After finishing that at around 10:45am I headed over to Kaihin-Makuhari where the License Center is and went there to await what was in store for me in order to get my Japanese License. Apparently, the process is long and painful...and indeed I can see why.

For starters, it was rainy and gloomy today so the trek wasn't as nice, but I guess it wasn't pouring so that was good! Once I made it to the center, the reception desk for changing your license from a foreign license to a Japanese one was only open from the hours of 8:30am-9am and 1pm-1:30pm! Haha....I arrived at the center around 12pm so I had to wait for about an hour before I could even get my documentation to someone to have them check it so I could take the written test. Well, I got to get some kanji studying in so it wasn't too bad. Finally at around 1pm I handed in a multitude of items...

• My current U.S. Driver's License


• My old U.S. Driver's License (expired one)


• My current passport


• My old passport (expired one)


• The translated license provided by JAF


• My alien registration card (Japanese ID)

They were basically checking to make sure that I had lived in America for at least 3 months after having received my Driver's License. After that was all checked and finished, they took me to a room where I could take the written test. This is step 1.

It was an easy test. It was only 10 T/F questions and they were pretty common sense. The only challenge was getting around the translation from Japanese into English...which was not so easy on one of the questions! So during the test, I asked the proctor if he could explain more what one of the sentences meant. I can't remember verbatim what the question was but it went something like this....:

Original Question:

"When driving on a road, large motor vehicles and mopeds must keep to the extreme right and light small vehicles and extremely light ones must keep to the extremely left, when approaching a lane which has a change direction."

I read this a couple times and it didn't really make complete sense to me...so I thought about it a little bit and skipped it. After coming back to it, I looked at the picture which accompanied it and figured it was probably trying to say something like this:

My Interpretation:

"When driving within the lane, large motor vehicles and mopeds are required to drive along the right side of the lane while smaller vehicles such as bicyclists are required to drive along the left side of the lane."

I talked with the proctor while he was giving me the eye exam and he had asked me what was confusing about that question. I told him that the last line of the question didn't quite make sense because I wasn't sure if they were trying to say that when you turned into a lane after making a right turn, the vehicles must be in those positions within the lane, or while it was running normally in the lane. He then was like, "Ohhh, I see. Then if it was confusing for you then it might be confusing for other foreigners taking the test as well!"

Haha, I agreed and kindly offered to write down a cleaner way to word the question so they could correct it and ensure that other people wouldn't make a mistake while answering the question because of misinterpretation. He gratefully accepted. So after I finished filling out the applications and getting my appointment set for coming back to take the road test, I wrote down on a piece of paper a more natural way of wording the question. He thanked me and said they would definitely make the change. I guess I'm becoming a natural teacher! Haha! The only thing that was going through my mind was..."Since I helped you with this...could you please just give me the Japanese License now without having to take the road test?!"

Well, I'm scheduled to take the test next Thursday (the 9th) in the morning so I'll have to make another trip out there and probably have to take some time off from school in order to go. They are only open on the weekdays so I have no other choice.

I'm glad that I was able to pass the test and before having taken the test, I read a lot of blogs and information on there about switching to a Japanese License. I even read online that other people had written that it would be tough to get around some of the questions because of the wording or translations, much like the one I encountered today. My question is, if other people experienced it and write about it online, why aren't the tests fixed into better English now? Those people should have also helped by providing a more natural way of wording the questions! Anyway, I hope I pass the test next week and will not have to make more trips out there!