Originally Posted by
joejones
Precisely for the latter reason they have a rule that you need to prove that you were in the foreign country for a certain period (6 months IIRC) after receiving the foreign license. I witnessed a very irate British guy at the DMV in Samezu who had gotten his British license two passports ago and had been living in Hong Kong for the past 10+ years; they wouldn't accept his conversion request because he had no documented proof of having lived in the UK after getting the license.
But that's just plain pedantic Japanese bureaucratic stupidity. I think it is 90 days, actually.
Did you have to prove this with a US license? How? So your license was issued in 2007 let's say and you moved to JP in 2012. They check your current (and/or last passport). What proof is there that you actually lived in the US? Lack of Japanese or other residence visas in the passport?
I hear that you go through a "lite" test procedure with a US license. But I guess if you do not have residency proof then they make you go through the full rigmarole.