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The driver test consists of hearing, eyesight, written and practical/road test components. Citizens of 21 countries, not including the United States, are exempt from taking everything but the eye test. Some of these countries met the exemption requirement because the NPA examined their domestic traffic safety record and determined that it was at least as good as Japan's. Other nations exempt Japanese license holders from a driving test.
Canada received approval on February 1, 2003 after a lengthy (3-4 years) review. Canada had to submit responses to a lengthy questionnaire, regarding each of the country's 13 provinces and territories. In order for the U.S. to be exempt from the driver test requirement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must instruct the Japanese Embassy in Washington to contact each of the 50 states and provide them with a questionnaire. Once the 50 individual questionnaires are collected, they will be translated into Japanese and studied by the National Police Agency. In addition to individual state safety records and procedures for acquiring a license, the National Police Agency will be looking closely to see if each of the 50 individual states exempt holders of valid Japanese licenses from taking state road and written tests.
We shared with the NPA statistics which showed that the United States had a risk value much lower than that of Japan's with respect to fatalities as a share of vehicle kilometers traveled. We were told that the Japanese police still needed to see the safety records of each individual state. The Police are also concerned to see if each of the 50 individual states exempt holders of valid Japanese licenses from taking state road and written tests (many do not).
omae mona wrote: Kusai jijii, just out of curiosity - I know it's a stretch - but is it possible you didn't have adequate supporting paperwork?
FG Lurker wrote:Canadian licenses are issued by province, there is no national license in Canada or national licensing standards.
Admittedly there are 50 different US licenses and only 13 different Canadian ones, but I think there must be some other reason the US hasn't entered into this agreement system that many countries have. States-rights issues? Possibly lack of data sharing between states as someone mentioned above, making it possible for one person to have separate licenses in multiple states?
Greji wrote:The first problem Lurk, is that the individual states in the US do not want to give up revenue generated by the licensing process. There have been efforts to get a standardized national license (I think there's even one going on now), but it keeps getting shot down in congress.
GomiGirl wrote:Is it really 2 farking hours worth?
Behan wrote:If you have a gold license the boring video and speech they make you sit through is shorter.
Behan wrote:Maybe it's just a Chiba thing since we are in one of the worst prefectures for traffic fatalaties. I renewed it last year and if memory serves it was something like an hour long. But when you get out of the video and lecture they have your license waiting for you.
I think part of the lecture was about the change in penalties for things like drunk driving.
Behan wrote:Do loose bowel movements count? I usually have my Depends on and am safe.
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