Driving in Japan

Hello again,

Now that winter is coming to an end, my first year here in Aomori is nearing completion. Upon this landmark comes the realization that soon, I will not be able to drive an automobile.

Before I came to Japan, I had no idea whether or not I would need a car. It turns out that the Board of Education had decided for me. They forbade us from driving during working hours and highly discouraged car ownership. I later found out that in the past, a JET was killed in a car accident during working hours, and the BOE was forced to pay a lot of money in working insurance because of it. So, of course, the only way to prevent a person from breaking a finger is to cut them all off. That's the logic of the BOE, anyways.

Even though I knew I wouldn't have a car, I still wanted to be able to drive a rental car. One of the great things about Japan is that you don't need to be 25 years old to rent a car like in the States. Budget rental companies are reasonably cheap (as low as $18 for same day pick up/drop off), and it's by far the best way to make a day trip in the local region. Public transportation can get very expensive, especially when traveling far or with a group of people. Trains and buses don't always go where or when we want to, so rental cars are convenient and cost-effective.

If you possess a US driver's license already, you can go to AAA and obtain an International Driving Permit for a small fee of $15. It contains translations for many countries, and is valid for a year after issue. You just need to make sure you keep your original driver's license with it for it to be valid.

International driving permit, but soon to be scrap paper.

The international driving permit is renewable every year. However, the rule is that you must be in your original country for at least 3 consecutive months before you can be issued another one. The JET program will terminate you immediately if you are out of Japan for 60 days of any year, so being in America for 3 months is impossible.

After my international permit expires in the beginning of August, the only way for me to be licensed to drive is if I obtain a Japanese driver's license. For some countries, like Australia and New Zealand, all a person needs to do is fill out some paperwork and take a simple written test, and their driving permission is transferred to the country of Japan. Unfortunately for me, the United States is not one of those countries. I used to be able to drive a 40-foot-long bus with as many as 70 people inside, and yet all I can drive with my license alone is a small single-person non-highway moped.

I've heard several explanations as to why this is. Firstly, the US driver's license system does not operate at the national level. Instead, each state issues different driver's licenses under slightly different driving law. This makes creating an international driving treaty - for the US as an entirety - a gigantic bureaucratic pain in the ass (and Japan is the king of bureaucratic pains in the ass). Secondly, apparently Japanese drivers are not immediately allowed to drive in the US either (thank goodness, since they're wild lead-footed wheel-slingers), so there is a reciprocal resentment between the two countries about this matter. Whatever the explanation, I'm shit out of luck.

For me, I need to make an appointment for a written AND driving test. First, though, I need to get my license translated at the Japanese version of AAA, the Japanese Automobile Federation (JAF). They also collected 3000 yen from me for the service, which literally involved one of their people printing out a page of Japanese and doing "fill in the blank" and "check the box". I also bought an English copy of the rules of the road for 1000 yen. That's right, you must PAY to find out what the road laws are.

A very expensive and useless piece of paper.

After that, I can go to the Japanese DMV (called the Menkyo Center) to take the written test and driving test (for a fee of about 2000 yen + 2050 yen issuing fee if I pass). The driving test here in Japan is nothing like that in America, where you drive on real roads for a few miles. Here, you must methodically go through an empty driving course, performing a routine that you must memorize beforehand. It's not so much a test of real driving skill, but more an examination of your ability to memorize and follow directions to a T (which is very typical of Japanese tests).

That would be great and all, if they provided us with good directions to begin with. Before the driving test, they hand you a sheet of paper, with lines showing your route and areas where you must get up to a certain speed. They fail to mention the formalities of the test, though. They don't tell you that you need to walk around the car and check underneath for children/animals. The don't tell you the exact order in which you must look over your shoulder, turn on your blinker, edge over to the side of the lane, check over your shoulder again, and then turn. They don't tell you when it's okay to back up out of a tight turn, and what is an immediate fail. If you don't know these exactly, you will fail.

Why don't they tell you? Well, on the other side of the driving course (yes, the same driving course the Menkyo Center uses), there is a driving school. If you fail the test, the instructor will advise you to go to driving school, where they charge you 5000 yen per one-hour lesson. At the driving school, they will not teach you how to drive well, but instead instruct you on exactly what procedure you need to perform to pass the driving test. Basically, they are all in cahoots to squeeze as much money out of you as possible. The JAF; the Menkyo Center; the driving school; all of them are in on it, and it stinks. It just reeks of corruption, but it's perfectly legal.

The worst part is, it's not even that bad for us foreigners. Japanese people MUST go through a driving school and then test at the Menkyo Center to get a driver's license. In total, the expenses to get through the process are about 300,000 yen, equivalent to about $3000! How can they charge such an exorbitant amount without challenge or competition? Here's the story...

When a high-ranking police official has done his many years of duty, he generally "retires" into a well-paying position at the top of a driving school. Here, he has connections with the people at the Menkyo Center, and can pretty much pass or fail anyone at will. People who pay their tuition and attend driving school are almost guaranteed to pass. Anyone who tries to fight these people are nearly guaranteed to fail. I've been told of a Japanese teacher who had to take the driving test a whopping 8 times before he finally passed! It seems like he was less than polite to one of the instructors, so they failed him until they didn't feel like failing him anymore.

Meanwhile, since anyone with the money can get a license, Japan has an epidemic of problem drivers. Anyone who's driven or ridden in a car in Japan knows that Japanese drivers are the craziest bastards out there. They park wherever they want, even if they block traffic. They swerve dangerously around stopped buses. They do anything just to pass a few cars, even if it means driving in the median or against opposing traffic. They speed beyond belief.

On the other side of the spectrum are the infamous "paper drivers". These are people who have gone through the process of obtaining their license, but haven't a clue on how to drive on real roads. Because driving schools have prepared them so little for the actual world, they live without a vehicle and in fear of the day they will actually need to drive. My former Japanese language teacher was one of these paper drivers.

For me, things can be somewhat expensive, but it's not nearly as bad as it is for Japanese citizens. Also, it is entirely possible to pass the test in one try, as a fellow teacher did a few years ago. All the JET teachers who have taken the test have compiled their advice and instructions into a single document to help us pass as easily as possible.

Soon, my time will come, and I will keep this blog updated with the details. Thanks for reading, and see you again!

***UPDATE: I went to the driving center today and took the test. After a strangely long and specific inquisition of my previous driving experience and practices of the California DMV, they gave me a short written test. It was in English and only 10 yes/no questions long. Some of the questions were laughably easy, like the one that asked, "Should you [do something] safely?" No...

After scoring a perfect on the written test, I moved on to the driving test. As expected, the course is actually really short once you're driving a car, so I was kinda rushed to get in all my blind-spot checking. Halfway through, the tester told me I had failed, and I'm still not entirely sure why. I used the rest of the time as practice, and then the tester reviewed the things I had done well/poorly. He said I was checking surroundings very well, but that I was driving too fast through the turns. I actually drive comparatively slow (I'm a bus driver for god's sake), so I'm guessing they really want me to crawl through the course (I was already driving below 20 kph for most of the track). In America, we'd call that "obstruction of traffic", but alas this is not America.

The second thing he mentioned was that I wasn't edging to the sides far enough before making my turns. In Japan, they want you to scoot over to scrape the very edge of the lane in the direction you're going to turn. I find this dangerous, but that's apparently what they want. Finally, after he told me I had failed the test, I stopped at a stop sign slightly past the painted line. I was kinda distressed so my concentration slipped a little, but I knew that signaled an automatic fail (whatever, he already failed me anyways). He may have failed me for this reason at a previous red light, but I know for sure that I stopped before the line. My first driving tester back when I was 15 also docked points for stopping past the line when I actually didn't. It seems like, internationally, people don't understand that just because you can't see the line any more doesn't mean you've crossed it. It seems like I will need to stop yards behind the line to make these fools understand...

In the end, I'm frustrated that I need to go back to the driving center to test again. It also seems like there will be some driving school in my near future, although my pride is screaming at me not to. I am far too qualified a driver to be willingly dragged into this bureaucratic bullshit, and it doesn't help to know that I probably have more logged miles and driver training than the person testing me. But, what choice do I have?

***UPDATE AGAIN: I've done it! I finally have my Japanese driver's license!

I went to the driving school and forked over $50 for an hour of behind-the-wheel training. I would say that it helped a lot, but all I really learned is that the testers want me to drive achingly slow on the course. Anybody who has taken the test before could have told me that for free, but nobody did.

Basically, they want me to make turns at walking to jogging speed. If they even feel the slightest centrifugal force while turning, you're going too fast. Imagine if you were turning on a sheet of ice, and that's the speed they want. Also, when braking, they want you to stomp repeatedly (and annoyingly) on the brake and come to a stomach-lurching halt. Originally I was instructed to do this on the written guide provided to me, but I didn't because I thought it was too comically stupid to take seriously. Well, apparently "comically stupid" is the Japan-approved way.

Anyways, I paid a large sum of money for a guy to tell me this and give me some practice (which ended up being only like 40 minutes, since I had no problems with the course obstacles and driving around at crawling speeds get's tiresome after a while). The next day, I showed up at the licensing center, late, soaking wet from biking through a sudden downpour, and without a translator. Despite what people tell you about "leaving a good impression", I passed easily this time, and then waited around for an hour or so before they handed me my new driver's license! Here she is:

Ain't she a beaut?

Yay! Now I can rent cars and drive around as much as I want! That being said, if anyone is taking the foreigner driver's licence test in Aomori anytime soon, don't waste your money on driving school. Send me a message and I'll let you know everything you need to do to pass. Of course, if you have trouble with the actual physical driving part of it, then you're on your own. =P