Japanese is a cool language – it looks good, it’s fun to learn and it’s what they speak in anime – but unfortunately virtually no-one outside of Japan speaks, reads or writes Japanese. On that basis, when you plan to take a Japanese car out of the country, a little bit of preparation is required to ensure that you have the relevant documentation in a form that can be read by the rest of the world. The following bits and pieces are required:
- Translated vehicle registration document (登録証書 – toroku-shosho)
- International number plate (国際ナンバー – kokusai nanba)
- International driving permit (国際運転免許証 – kokusai-unten-menkyoshou)
International Driving Permit (国際運転免許証 – kokusai-unten-menkyoshou)
As well as getting International driving permits using our UK licences, I figured it was also worth getting them using our Japanese licences – the more the merrier! To get my International Driving Permit in Japan I made a trip to the driving licence centre in Samezu (鮫洲) – if you already have a Japanese driving licence then you’ve most likely already been here, or somewhere similar. After checking at the front desk, I was dispatched to the 3rd floor where there’s a specific desk dedicated to International Driving Permits. I was well prepared with the necessary documents, or so I thought…
- passport
- 3cm x 5cm photo (less than 6 months old)
- Japanese driving licence
- money
It turned out the photo I took was 7 months old (the machine date-stamps them,) so not within the 6 month limit(!) and I had to get a new set done. With a valid photo in hand the process was fairly painless and just required a form to be filled out.
Unfortunately as you have to apply in person, I wasn’t able to get Clare’s Japanese IDP sorted.
Vehicle registration document (登録証書 – toroku-shosho)
For me the hardest thing about getting this document was finding the building where it’s issued – the rikuun-kyoku (陸運局.) I knew roughly where it was meant to be and figured it would be obvious once I was in the area, but that turned out not to be the case. The people in the buildings I mistakenly entered seemed equally perplexed, but eventually I came across a nice lady who knew what I was looking for and walked me to the right place. For anyone else attempting the same thing in Tokyo here’s a map and picture (and google maps link) – it’s really near the driving licence centre in Samezu (鮫洲).
Having established that I was in the right place, and established exactly what it was that I was after, a very nice lady helped me fill out a form and then disappeared for 15 or 20 minutes with the car’s documentation. When she reappeared she came bearing the translated document. I’d seen one before so it wasn’t a complete shock, but it’s kind of crazy that the document everyone will use to officially identify our car over the next year is basically a flimsy piece of A5 paper that looks like something I knocked up in 10 minutes using Word.
The good thing was that there was no charge for the service!
International number plate (国際ナンバー – kokusai nanba)
As avid readers of this blog will no doubt have seen, Totty’s Japanese number plate has various Japanese letters on it, which is a no-go in countries outside of Japan. Therefore, having obtained our translated vehicle registration, the next step was to get international plates made. Once again, we were helped with this! The process goes like this:
- Ring Komatsu Automotive (小松自動車工業) 03-3474-0215 and ask them to send you an application form by post
- Complete the form and make a copy of your translated vehicle registration document (see above)
- Fax the documents to Komatsu Automotive (Yes, you read that correctly – FAX!!)
- Make a bank transfer to Komatsu Automotive for the fee (our plates were ¥5700)
- Wait around 10 days
- Pay the delivery cost of the new plates as cash-on-delivery when the courier delivers them (ours cost ¥756)
I’ve got to admit it feels good to have finally got the plates. Not only because they’ll be the number plates we have attached to the car until we arrive in Frome, but also as they’re last piece in the paperwork puzzle leading up to getting the car ready for foreign roads – there’s still a shit-ton of other stuff to sort out, but this particular branch of preparation is now complete.
So how does it work with insurance? Do you have to get international cover from Japan or can you use a UK company?
Reading other people’s blogs, it seems we’ll have to buy compulsory third party cover at each country’s border. For more comprehensive cover, as it’s a Japanese car I doubt any UK companies will touch it. And dealing with a Japanese insurer would be next to impossible as what we’re doing probably falls very far outside the parameters they’re used to dealing with!