Taiwaned

I understand there is a reciprocal agreement between Canadian and Japanese driver's license. I can give them my Canadian BC driver's license and they will issue me a Japanese driver's license.

What I am not sure about is the written test. Can I take it in English? How hard is it? Is it mandatory for people who already have a driver's license from another country?

jib71

No written test for Canadians, it seems:
http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca....aspx?lang=eng

armagebedar

It's called gaimen kirikae (外国免許からの切り替え), and it's not too difficult to do -- and it's a lot cheaper than going to Japanese driving school. Here's a pamphlet from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police concerning the procedure, which doesn't vary much from prefecture to prefecture.

As jib71 mentioned, Canadians are exempt from the written *and* driving tests, which makes your life a *lot* easier -- Americans, for example, have to take abbreviated written and driving exams, and multiple failures on the driving portion are common.

The only tricky part is getting a translation from JAF, but they usually take care of it on the spot within 30 minutes.

Taiwaned

Thank you for your responses.

Will report back in October after I try this.

joejones

The other potentially tricky part is that you will need some evidence that you lived in Canada for 3 months after getting the license.

When I converted my American license at Samezu, there was a very irate Briton who was getting the run-around at the counter. He had been living in Hong Kong since he had gotten his current passport, so there were no stamps showing that he had been in the UK for three months, and he supposedly couldn't even get that evidence from the UK government if he asked.

Taiwaned

That will be no problem, since I got my license when I was 16 years old. My Canadian drivers license is already 2 years old.

jib71

Hmm ... Smells fishy. I'm awash with evidence of my residence...

- I don't see how you can avoid having a ton of evidence unless you lived at your parents' home and avoided earning any money, claiming any benefits, or using any services.

- Even if you didn't keep the paperwork, the authorities keep records. For example, Ealing council has evidence that I was living in the borough, using library services, paying my council tax and on the electoral register 11 years ago. The council was able to confirm this when I returned to London a couple of years ago. And then there's income tax records, national insurance, TV license, bank statements, car insurance policies, parking fines (try avoiding those!) ...

- The passport story sounds like a red herring. A UK passport would not have any UK stamps in it (regardless of how long the owner lived in the UK or how often he crossed UK borders). An old passport, issued in the UK would not serve as evidence of a period of residence in the UK.

joejones

You are using logic. You have obviously been outside Japan for a while.

The way they interpret the passport is that if it was issued in, say, 2003, and doesn't have any stamps prior to 2004, they will assume that the holder spent the first year of the passport in that country. This is how I proved that I had been in the US for the requisite period. I think this guy's problem was that he had a HK residence stamp of some kind which dated back to (or immediately followed) the day he got the passport.

I think they are mainly looking out for the possibility of Japanese people skirting the expensive and time-consuming domestic licensing process by traveling to somewhere else, getting a license there and immediately bringing it back for conversion in Japan. US licenses in particular are really easy to get, which is probably why we have to take a driving exam in order to convert ours....

jib71

That's not a good assumption with a European passport.

joejones

It's not a good assumption with any passport...

jib71

You are probably right. However, it's harder for, say, Chinese citizens to leave their home country without getting some ink on the passport.

PomPalm

As long you're visiting, or only a short-term resident ("short-term" meaning less than one year), you should be able to use an International Drivers License while in Japan. And getting an Intl Drivers License in Canada (or elsewhere) is going to be alot easier than trying to get any kind of license in Japan.

Steve M

My understanding is that the actual reason is that the US doesn't recognize Japanese licenses for conversion, so Japan does the same in the spirit of reciprocity. It didn't used to be this way until a few years ago.

Taiwaned

Yeah I know this however the principle reason why I want a Japanese Driver's license is not so I can drive.

I want ID that doesn't ID me immediately as an Alien Resident and is readily accepted.

joejones

A health insurance card would also work for this purpose.