Comment by tecleandor
1 year ago
Ha! I go to Japan every now and then, as I have friends there, and I've though a couple times about doing the Japanese driving license thing, that looked super easy back at the time (translate your current driving license, book a meeting in the exam center, do a short exam, and you're almost good to go). I was thinking about doing it in my next trip in two weeks, but seems like they've raised the difficulty several levels :)
(Spaniard here too...)
A friend lives there, he said basically:
if you drive on the right at home, they will fail you the first time on principle. If you drive on the left (aus, brit) you have a chance to pass the first time.
> I go to Japan every now and then
AFAIK this is only available for residents? People traveling can/should use the international driving permit. Both JAL (translation) and the center itself asked me for my resident card.
> do a short exam
Oh there's no exam needed at least! Unless you mean the eye test?
It’s not, you can get a Japanese driving license without living here ; but the government is making some noises to cut back on that (some recent semi-notable accidents caused by foreigners).
It’s apparently been a loophole for Chinese and Vietnamese tourists to get a license that is more recognized abroad then their own.
I think restricting this to residents makes sense; I’m more wary of making it more complex or difficult in other ways, but I also have that quest behind me so I don’t really care to be fair.
As to exam - that depends entirely as to where your “original” driving license is from.
Some countries just need a sufficient amount of paperwork (which sometimes is more difficult than the exam), some require just a theory exam, some require both theory and practical exam. In case of the US, it also differs state by state, because of course it does; why would anything ever make sense.
> As to exam - that depends entirely as to where your “original” driving license is from.
Yes, that's why I was replying that since we both are Spaniards "(Spaniard here too...)"
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