License to Drive

I may not have my own car, but I have had several occasions over the last few months where I had wished I had my license. Mostly, this came about during our weekends at the ski cabin, where getting to and from the bottom of the ski slope, onsen, or restaurant, would have been made much easier if there had been more of us legally able to drive. Ski season has come and gone, but still one never knows when they may want to hire a car, drive a company car, or even a generous and trusting friend's car.

I actually came to Japan equipped with my international license - it was just one of those things that was on the 'to do' list before leaving my home country. I'll admit though, I didn't even use it once during the period of its validity. Sure enough, long after it has expired, and the law has changed no less (where an international license won't suffice after 12 months of being in Japan), I find myself thinking it would be helpful to be able to drive here, and thus planned a trip to the license issuing office in hope of a relatively quick and easy process and leaving with license in hand.

It wasn't as simple as just turning up on the day however - there were indeed things to be sorted before I even started planning how I was going to get to the Japan Automobile Federation where licenses are issued. After learning of all the things required for converting my license to a Japanese license I realized things were already off to a difficult start. I needed to prove that I had resided in my home country for at least 3 months after obtaining my home license, which seemed a bit of a trial given that my current license was a renewal of my initial license and therefore the issue date was after I had moved to Japan.

Admittedly not very optimistic, I sent of a letter to my home country's driving license authority and asked for evidence that my license had in fact been granted to me several years earlier. I then planned on taking my university degree to prove my continued residence (local to my license) after issue. I also had to spend half a morning at the Samezu Driver's License Bureau office getting an official translation. The translation was essentially only of my license so generally consisted of my name, date of birth, country and class of license. I felt I could have whipped up one of these on Word, but you are legally required to get an 'official' translation and in the process pay JPY 3,000. The piece of paper meant I was ready to go though, and so I was bitter about it mainly just for the 20 minutes I was made to wait for the translation to be completed.

I had a friend at work who also needed to get his foreign license transferred and so we decided on a day that suited us both and headed off bright and early to the Automobile Federation so as to avoid any unnecessary queues that these sorts of places usually offer as standard. We both felt like we had enough documents and papers (add passport, alien registration car, original drivers license, translation of license, letter of authority of license issue, university degree and two passport sized photographs) to fill a book. I spent the whole journey to the office convinced that I had forgotten something. After being too lazy to seek out the right bus from Shinagawa station, we jumped in a taxi and headed to the office. The building we arrived at more resembled a hospital - complete with lino floors and eerie silence. In essence, the building was a series of booths and it was our challenge to work our way around these one at a time, with several hours of waiting in between.

We were lucky enough to go straight to the first counter (no queue!) where we sprawled out our carefully prepared papers. There was time spent working out the pieces of the puzzle, and at times it felt like it would have almost have been easier to draw up a timeline of our lives and how that related to our license. I seemed to have been lucky though and soon enough got called back up to discover I had made it to the next round - that of the eye examination - luckily I had brought my glasses! I passed the eye test that consisted of 6 questions, 3 regarding shape, 3 regarding colour, and proceeded to the next counter, where I paid my JPY 4,500 for my license. I then had to go back to the first counter I had been for a stamp of some sort, then back downstairs to get a digital photograph taken, and then wait 45 minutes before I could approach the final counter - that of the license distribution section - yes, the finish line! This is actually the easier option as depending on the country you are from some are required to actually sit a driving test too. Meanwhile however, my colleague had gotten no further than the first reception area. Eventually he discovered that his home-made translation wasn't official enough and so he ventured around Japan, and completed his own license-gaining-expedition some 7 hours after he had begun.

We had somewhat the easier option in that at least neither of us were required to sit an actual driving test, as some foreigners are (depending on where you are from), and while both of us may have had differing degrees of frustration (mine was just a 3 hour journey) but we both now have a new found freedom in that we can get behind the wheel of a car in the streets of Tokyo. Yes, it's a bit of a scarier environment to what I'm used to driving in, but in a city where the average driving speed is something like 15 km per hour, how hard can it be??