International drivers licences

[GomiGirl]

I know, I know - long time between posts but you all are such a great source of information.

A friend of mine is visiting for a short time and she is driving. However, she has just realised that she has left her international driving permit in the UK and there is no way for her to get it while she is here for the next few weeks.

She is completely paranoid about being stopped by the po-po and getting in some serious poo-poo. She doesn't live here any longer and doesn't have a gaijin card or visa any longer. She is here on NPO work and not earning any money but she does need to be driving.

Can she get an international licence locally? Or what is the worst thing that will happen on the off chance she is stopped? She seems to think that it is a pretty big deal.

[Wage Slave]

Wagyl will no doubt know better than anyone but short of Googling and Sifting and off the top of my head, in the days when I used IDPs their status was that of an approved translation of a UK licence. It is not in itself a licence - the UK (or a n other) licence is what really counts. If she has her UK licence then she has broken a regulation but she isn't actually driving without a licence.

The JAF issue IDPs for Japanese licences and do translations of UK licences to exchange a licence but I don't think they will isssue an IDP for use here from a UK licence. It just doesn't work like that.

And, there are express postal/courier services available for urgent documents.

[wagyl]

She can't get an International Drivers Permit here based on a foreign licence.

The dirty secret about International Driver's Permits are that they are not in fact licences. They are just a standard formal translation of the items on the original licence, allowing someone to read the contents of the licence even if not in the language of the country of issue or the country they are in at the time. You must always also carry the original base foreign licence with you and present it together with the International Drivers Permit.

You will find that in many countries, a foreign licence alone is fine to be able to rent a car, which shows that an International Driver's Licence is often not a strict requirement. In many countries, the permits are issued by the various automotive clubs, equivalent to JAF, whereas in Japan they are issued by the Driver's License Centers.

However, Japan has decided that it does require International Driver's Permits, even though UK driver's licences are (for now! still) in EU format, standard across 28 countries and many languages.

I'm guessing that maybe she doesn't have any way for another person to get her International Driver's Licence and for example post it to you, ready for you to forward to her (I'm further guessing that her problem is more than that she will be on the move and can't predict where she will be when the letter arrives in Japan).

[Wage Slave]

Post Restante?

[GomiGirl]

I'm guessing that maybe she doesn't have any way for another person to get her International Driver's Licence and for example post it to you, ready for you to forward to her (I'm further guessing that her problem is more than that she will be on the move and can't predict where she will be when the letter arrives in Japan).

Thank you for this information.

You are correct - apparently there is nobody that can access her house in the UK while she is here.

If she does get stopped what is likely to happen to her?

She might have to see if somebody can drive her back to Tokyo when she is returning. She is currently in Inaka and confined to a friendly local community. Driving around there will be fine. It is the 7 hour trip back to Tokyo that she is worried about. She has never been stopped by the cops here - EVER - but sods law states that the one time will be when she doesn't have the right paperwork.

[Takechanpoo]

its the same case of this Namibian guy

[wagyl]

For the sake of completeness, there are currently six countries and one region which do not issue International Driver's Licences in the required Geneva Convention format but which Japan trusts the licensing centres, and so allows people to drive with that foreign licence accompanied by a translation: Switzerland, Slovenia, Germany, France, Belgium, Monaco and Taiwan.

That same link basically sets out that she would be driving without a license, which is expressed clearer in that Japanese than in any of the English links from Keishicho, although http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/mul ... icense.pdf is a possible clear statement. Maximum penalties are three years imprisonment, or 500,000 Yen (You might see one year, 300,000 yen online including in the English language materials from keishicho but penalties increased in December 2013). I don't know what the current usual tariff is, but looking at random internet lawyers' advice about driving a truck of a size larger than licence, a lot of the lawyers seem to expect a suspended sentence (= a period under probation: be a good girl) for a first offence.

[Russell]

I'm guessing that maybe she doesn't have any way for another person to get her International Driver's Licence and for example post it to you, ready for you to forward to her (I'm further guessing that her problem is more than that she will be on the move and can't predict where she will be when the letter arrives in Japan).

Thank you for this information.

You are correct - apparently there is nobody that can access her house in the UK while she is here.

If she does get stopped what is likely to happen to her?

She might have to see if somebody can drive her back to Tokyo when she is returning. She is currently in Inaka and confined to a friendly local community. Driving around there will be fine. It is the 7 hour trip back to Tokyo that she is worried about. She has never been stopped by the cops here - EVER - but sods law states that the one time will be when she doesn't have the right paperwork.

A few weeks back I had to attend a compulsory lecture to get my driver license renewed, and they talked (among other things involving lots of bloody details) about driving a vehicle for which one has not the appropriate license. I do not remember the details, but there are serious punishments for this. Do not do it!!!

Google shows me a maximum of 300,000 Yen fine and a 1-year prison sentence, and even deportation is possible.

Here is a link. I didn't read it in detail, but I get the impression that the only option she has is to convert her British license into a Japanese license. I do not know how much time that takes, and if it is even possible for a non-resident.

[omae mona]

However, Japan has decided that it does require International Driver's Permits, even though UK driver's licences are (for now! still) in EU format, standard across 28 countries and many languages.

Slightly off tangent, but since wagyl linked to a foreign embassy website, I will mention that the info about this on both the U.S. and U.K. websites is absolutely awful; at best, misleading, and at worst, outright wrong. They directly contradict what the National Police Agency website says as well as some actual regulations I looked up.

An IDP is only valid for use in Japan for one year regardless of its date of expiry.
..
If you intend to stay in Japan for longer than one year, you should apply for a Japanese driving licence.

This is a bit wishy-washy and much less misleading than the crap on the U.S. embassy web site. But it's more of a MUST apply, not SHOULD apply. And it's valid for the SHORTER of one year and however much time is left on the IDP. And the 1 year starts from when you became resident in Japan, not when you got the license.

This document from the Tokyo police gives more info. But it is still quite oversimplified and incomplete compared to the Japanese version (which I can dig up links to if anybody is interested), which covers all cases.

Anyway, I agree with wagyl. The IDP is required. Driving without it is an extremely bad idea; your friend will almost definitely get arrested if pulled over by the police. And given that your friend probably does not know all the rules of the road and can't read all the signs, getting pulled over by the police is not that unlikely!

[wagyl]

Google shows me a maximum of 300,000 Yen fine and a 1-year prison sentence, and even deportation is possible.

Here is a link. I didn't read it in detail, but I get the impression that the only option she has is to convert her British license into a Japanese license. I do not know how much time that takes, and if it is even possible for a non-resident.

I edited my post to include a warning about information on penalties:

Maximum penalties are three years imprisonment, or 500,000 Yen (You might see one year, 300,000 yen online including in the English language materials from keishicho but penalties increased in December 2013).

Converting to a local licence will be impossible as a tourist: it requires a juminhyo.

[TennoChinko]

She can apply for another IDP here:

http://www.theaa.com/getaway/idp/motidp002.html

Form is here: http://www.theaa.com/getaway/idp/idp-ap ... n-form.pdf

The extra costs and pain in the ass factors will include:

expediting the photos and application to the UK as soon as possible [EMS is probably your best bet]
and unlike the US National Automobile Club, the UK AA doesn't accept credit cards ...so she will need either a check or a postal order...
ideally a friend or relative in the UK who can accept the IDP and send it to her in Japan by EMS... (if they are able to ... she could send the half completed IDP application to them and have them send a check or money order on her behalf )

[wagyl]

It looks like priority service takes a week, so even that might be too long.

Good idea looking into that option though: back last century the standard knowledge was that Singapore was the only country which you could apply for the International Driver's Permits from outside the country. Since the AA will now accept postal applications and courier overseas (for a fee), maybe other countries are doing it too.

[Grumpy Gramps]

I had a fender-bender once in Yokohama and it was my fault and I had only my Swiss license on me, nothing else. The police gave the license a puzzled look, were friendly and let me go, once it was clear that we were properly insured and all that. So they might be a little more lenient, when it's a tourist?

Mind you, this was in the early eighties and I spoke no Japanese. Things might have changed since then and t(h)ankfully I had no further experience with either fender-benders or police pull-overs ever since. In a pinch, I might take the risk, but probably not with a company car (NGO?).

[wagyl]

Some might say that the bigger risk of driving without a licence is not the chance of being picked up by the police, but it is that she is effectively driving without any insurance as well.

However, this scenario raised interesting issues: she does in fact have all the necessary paperwork she just doesn't have it on her. Strictly speaking, she is driving without carrying her licence on her, which usually only attracts a 3000 yen fine. That explanation might get her through the hoops with insurance, but the police will have no way to check that she has such an international Driver's Permit, without her going to the UK and collecting it and bringing it back to Japan. There is a broad range of discretion available to the police officer: so much depends on why she has been stopped by the police in the first place, and whether the police officer's soup was cold that morning.

But, you asked for the worst case scenario: substantial fines and possibly imprisonment, but the most likely "worst case" result would be a suspended sentence, which only requires imprisonment if you are caught breaking the law again during the probation period.
It is the people who are rorting the system when they should have a Japanese licence but use the International Driver's Permits, like Dante Carver did, who attract the higher penalties for driving without a licence, and even he got away with it not being taken further. That said, his penalty for the illegal U-turn which lead to the discovery of his licence situation did attract a stronger penalty than just the usual fine, because it was "aggravated" by being done without a licence.

[kurogane]

As expensive and time consuming as it sounds, could she not get a new one sent from the UK before she needs to take that long drive?

I would strongly recommend not F'in around on this one. Assuming it is not her car or a rental and is probably the NPO's or a sympathetic supporter's that could be a fine kettle of rotten fish she might drag them into, which is, at the very least, very unprofessional, no? Having said that, I used to regularly drive 7 hours one way from highland Gifu to the centre of Kyoto and was never pulled over or even looked at once by the Police. She could easily plan a route that allowed her to get close enough on the quieter roads or even driving politely on the toll roads, and then have a friend come out by train, meet her and chauffeur her the rest of the way. The key to not being pulled over is to drive like me, not like Matsuki/Ch@ko: also known as driving like a granny.

Anyhoo, good luck with this.

[wagyl]

Twenty years of driving, and I have only ever been pulled over three times: once during hanami season when they were breath testing everyone, once doing 18 Km/h over the limit, and once when they thought I wasn't wearing a seatbelt -- beard is the same colour as the seatbelt. Just last week, I was driving with just one headlight working and "driving while gaijin" and the oncoming police car ignored me.

But of course, for every anecdote, there is a counter-anecdote.

[matsuki]

The key to not being pulled over is to drive like me, not like Matsuki/Ch@ko: also known as driving like a granny.

Please don't...plenty of confused, 20km under the speed limit, granny drivers out there already.

I had a patrol car kyu brake and both officers wind their necks around at me last night while coming back some...in Nerima, at a fucking stoplight. I must look so menacing in a minivan. I thought for sure I was getting pulled over without legit reason again but lucky for both of us...they moved on. I wouldn't risk driving here without a the standard license translation for a number of reasons.

[kurogane]

'Member that old joke about everybody else being an A'hole? The smart $5 says you were driving like you (witlessly badly) or they had just been transferred from Tottori.
It was probably your driving. As Others have pointed out, you are from LA.

[legion]

take the train

[wagyl]

take the train

I would too, but I am assuming that there is the requirement to deliver the car back to Tokyo at the end of the project.

[GomiGirl]

take the train

I would too, but I am assuming that there is the requirement to deliver the car back to Tokyo at the end of the project.

Yes - it is my bloody car. I kinda want it back.

[legion]

take the train

I would too, but I am assuming that there is the requirement to deliver the car back to Tokyo at the end of the project.

Yes - it is my bloody car. I kinda want it back.

get the train and drive it back

[FG Lurker]

I had a patrol car kyu brake and both officers wind their necks around at me last night while coming back some...in Nerima, at a fucking stoplight. I must look so menacing in a minivan. I thought for sure I was getting pulled over without legit reason again but lucky for both of us...they moved on. I wouldn't risk driving here without a the standard license translation for a number of reasons.

I really wonder what you do to attract so much attention from the cops. I am not a conservative or slow driver, yet I've had very few issues with the police in my ~20 years in Japan.

Once, just after I started driving here, I was pulled over for doing 140kph in a 60kph zone. It was at night on an empty elevated roadway (but not an expressway) with no pedestrian access so it's not like I was going to mow down granny. Still, 80kph over is serious business here, especially on 一般道. Got a verbal warning and sent on my way.

Another time I did an illegal u-turn at a place I could've sworn was legal. I'd done it countless times before and had seen many, many other drivers do likewise. Busted by a motorcycle cop. I apologized and had a chat with him, he told me one of my brake lights was also out and sent me on my way with....a verbal warning.

Another time I was driving on an expired license (had no idea) and passed through a drunk driving checkpoint. Cops don't usually ask to see a license in those but for some reason they asked me to see mine. Sure, no problem. Cop looks at it, "This is expired." I couldn't believe it. He called his supervisor over and we chatted a bit. He sent me on my way and told me to get it renewed the next day. No idea what is supposed to happen in that case but I suspect it's not letting the idiot gaijin drive home.

I didn't do anything odd in these situations or fake not being able to speak Japanese. I just talked to the cops like humans and was apologetic for whatever I'd done.

[wagyl]

I really wonder what you do to attract so much attention from the cops.

He carries trouble around in his pendulous testicles. This has been established many years ago.

Or, to quote the police in the video Take linked, 'poi'su ne.

I didn't do anything odd in these situations or fake not being able to speak Japanese. I just talked to the cops like humans and was apologetic for whatever I'd done.

Unfortunately, being polite and apologetic didn't get me a warning for my 18 Km/h over the limit. But Hokkaido police do have a reputation with out of prefecture number plates -- and these were out of prefecture rental plates. We southerners apparently must be taught a lesson, and beautiful straight roads with pastures of clover and holsteins either side, and no intersections, still require you to drive at 60, so the locals can overtake you at 90.

But hey, I'm no longer bitter about it. I got my gold licence back again, eventually.

[legion]

I really wonder what you do to attract so much attention from the cops.

He carries trouble around in his pendulous testicles. This has been established many years ago.

Or, to quote the police in the video Take linked, 'poi'su ne.

I didn't do anything odd in these situations or fake not being able to speak Japanese. I just talked to the cops like humans and was apologetic for whatever I'd done.

Unfortunately, being polite and apologetic didn't get me a warning for my 18 Km/h over the limit. But Hokkaido police do have a reputation with out of prefecture number plates -- and these were out of prefecture rental plates. We southerners apparently must be taught a lesson, and beautiful straight roads with pastures of clover and holsteins either side, and no intersections, still require you to drive at 60, so the locals can overtake you at 90.

But hey, I'm no longer bitter about it. I got my gold licence back again, eventually.

I know some Hokkaido people who tell me the police got tired of scraping mainlanders off the tarmac, especially motorcyclists. Something to do with people encountering long straight roads for the first time.

[Russell]

But hey, I'm no longer bitter about it. I got my gold licence back again, eventually.

I'm about to loose it. But only for 3 years...

[Grumpy Gramps]

get the train and drive it back

+1, you help a good friend, you help a good cause and you get a nice day out of the office. And you get your car back.

[Coligny]

get the train and drive it back

+1, you help a good friend, you help a good cause and you get a nice day out of the office. And you get your car back.

But clean the blood first before taking the road...

[kurogane]

take the train

I would too, but I am assuming that there is the requirement to deliver the car back to Tokyo at the end of the project.

Yes - it is my bloody car. I kinda want it back.

People are so selfish these days.......

I still think she could get close enough for you to meet her, but she really should buckle down and send for a new IDP in the time remaining. A shame she forgot hers, and all that, of course, but getting caught for that could reflect badly on the NPO, which we assume has a Japanese office or presence, and it isn't unimaginable it could cause you a headache or 2 as the owner lending her car to an "unlicensed driver", so to speak. Good luck, hope it all works out.

[matsuki]

'Member that old joke about everybody else being an A'hole? The smart $5 says you were driving like you (witlessly badly) or they had just been transferred from Tottori.
It was probably your driving. As Others have pointed out, you are from LA.

I passed them with cruise control set 1km below the limit, no lane changes, they had no driving to judge me on...I guarantee you it was "poissne" or some sort of FG-focus.

I really wonder what you do to attract so much attention from the cops. I am not a conservative or slow driver, yet I've had very few issues with the police in my ~20 years in Japan.

<snip>

I didn't do anything odd in these situations or fake not being able to speak Japanese. I just talked to the cops like humans and was apologetic for whatever I'd done.

How often do you drive? I've mentioned it before but a not so insignificant factor in my case is just the amount of driving I do. M-F I'm to and from work...meetings and deliveries, if they make sense by car, take me to about 8 prefectures a week. 3 out of 4 weekends have me driving literally across the country so I'm logging around 1,000K per week. So....naturally my sample size of the local driving chaos and traffic law enforcement is much larger than the average driver.

As to my driving habits, despite Kuro's hints, I'm driving a friggin minivan...not a sports car....and usually with lots of cargo....I drive quite carefully and defensively. I try to avoid all those constant lane changes idiots here do to save a few seconds, swerving around assholes stopped in "no parking zones" on surface streets and I signal before turning with enough time to give anyone behind me time to slow as needed. I drive enough that fuel economy is important so lead footed soccer mom I am not...smooth driving is key.

I haven't had a ticket in 2 years despite being pulled over or asked to roll down my window several times for random bullshit...only to encounter some teeth sucking when their reasoning is questioned, an apology, and be on my way. My guess, somewhat confirmed by a Tama officer, is a recent effort to nail drug packing FG. (IPU can probably comment more on this as he is stopped and searched on almost a weekly basis for just being in Roppongi) If they find drugs on you, now matter how dubious their reasoning for pulling you over or searching you, you're fucked and they get their arrest. For someone like me, packing nothing more than caffeine in the form of espresso, it was just annoying but the recent two experiences are bordering on harassment...regardless of how polite they are. That being said, I've always been polite, spoke Japanese, and cooperative (except when asked to sign BS tickets years ago) but with a camera rolling.