The first thing that you will notice in Japan is that everything involves far more bureaucracy than it does back home. This however has itís advantages as well as itís disadvantages. For example, it is impossible to sell a stolen car domestically hence car crime is very low. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any firther information.

Registering your Car

To register your car in Japan you must first apply for parking approval. The first step here is to go to your local police station and ask for the necessary forms (Hokan Basho Shomei Mosei Sho ñ a 4 part application) also you must ask your landlord or estate agency for a Hokan Basho Shomei and a Shozaizu Haichizu, the landlord should draw a map of the parking space and also write his address and stamp his Hanko on this form. The form you have obtained from the police should be filled out as well as you can and returned together will the other forms and a copy of your inkan shomei (certificate of your registered Hanko available from your local town office) to the Police. The application will take around a week after which you can collect your documents.

You will need the following documentation:

Once you have completed this you must take these documents together with the documents you should receive from the seller to the local vehicle registration office. Here you will move from building to building paying bits of money as you move around and the end result will be the car being registered in your name. This may involve the plates being changed if the car has been bought from another registration district.

The documents required from the seller of the said vehicle are as follows:

This may all sound a little complicated, well, it is, all of the forms are in Japanese and many Japanese people do not understand them as they are always completed by dealers. Please call us for advice or have us do it for you!

Insuring your Car

Insurance in Japan often baffles the foreigner. The fact is that standard insurance is included in the shaken fee. But this does not provide any real cover for you, it only enables you to drive the car. Additional cover comes in many forms but do be careful, many people have thought that they were insuring themselves fully comprehensively, but later found that only 3^rd parties were covered.

Car Registration (Shaken)

Shaken is infamous for being expensive, but it cannot be escaped. People often state how this is a super strict test of the car, but this is not really the case, it is more a super tax. The price is based primarily on the size of the car with ëKí cars being very cheap and larger cars being more expensive. Shaken is due when a car is 3 years old and every 2 years thereafter. For cars older than 20 years, the shaken is due annually. When a car is de-registered, the pro-rater unused tax portion is returned, but this only materializes 6 months after the date of registration.

Car Tax (annual)

Every May or so, a bill will land on your doorstep, this is based on your location and primarily on the engine size of your car. Small ëKí cars are cheap and as your engine displacement increases so you will move up into the next band. There is no way to escape this and you will not be able to sell or de-register your car unless this is paid.

Speeding / Drinking fines and penalties

Again, we find that the Japanese are very strict. There is a zero tolerance to drinking and driving which contrasts quite starkly to some of our home countries. Fines differ hugely depending on how far we are over certain limits. While the police find it hard to punish drivers on international licenses, fines may come as quite a shock. Especially in 40km/h areas where you are doing more than 80 km/h fines of over 100 000yen are not uncommon at all.