The good thing that I found out is that Japan and several countries (including Canada) have an agreement for license exchanges. This means that if you have a valid Canadian license, you can plainly exchange it for a Japanese one with no testing requirements. Sounds great, doesn't it? I decided to do that! What I didn't know is how much effort is actually involved in the process. If I knew about that, I might have changed my mind about trying but I decided to document everything so you can have some kind of idea about the process ;).
First of all, I checked online for the documentation that is required for this process. Several websites were helpful in outlining it quite well. This is what you need:
1. valid Driver's License from your home country (gotten at least 3 months before coming to Japan)
2. official translation of the Driver's License into Japanese
3. copies of your passport(s) that include entry/exit stamps
4. Alien Registration Card (the foreigner's ID in Japan)
5. 1 photograph
That all sounds pretty normal, doesn't it? Well... maybe apart from the "3 months before coming to Japan" part. Well, it turns out that the law about the driver's license is a bit complicated on that part. If you don't have the 3 months (for example, have renewed your license just before coming to Japan like I did) or have a passport that is too new (more on that later), you need to provide further documents (what exactly, it's totally unclear). Knowing about my license's issue date, when visiting Canada, I went to a licensing office and got a driver's abstract ($12) which details when I first got my license in Canada (for me that being about 15 years ago). I also brought back my old passport just in case they want to check stamps and all that stuff (since I read somewhere that it is necessary in this situation).
On Thursday last week, I went to Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) office that is recommended for the license translations. This place in Nagoya is situated near the Kanayama station (map below). There was no line and it took about 30 minutes with a cost of 3000yen ($38).
With all those documents in hand, on Friday after lunch, I headed to the ONLY place in Nagoya that does licenses - the Aichi Prefecture Driver's License Examination Center. This place doesn't have a specific website in English and the information from other Aichi Prefecture information sites gives pretty much the above list. The center is pretty far from downtown Nagoya, near the Hirabari subway station (although it is still a long walk from there). I went there by bicycle - approximately 12km from my home (one way).
I got there before 1:30pm and navigated the maze of numbered windows (around 15) to find window 12 that does the foreign license exchanges. There was nobody waiting so I went to the window and was told that the license issuing office closes at 1:30pm and that I will have to come back another day. However, the officer was kind enough to check my paperwork, calculate the dates that I was in Canada before getting the license based on the stamps in my passport, etc. He concluded that I don't have any entrance stamps in my passport from Canada which is true since Canada doesn't stamp it's citizens upon return. He came up with some numbers which seemed to be fine and didn't even look at my driver's abstract from Canada. Then he sent me to the fee payment window to get some stamps for my application (i.e. the application fee of 2100 yen ~$26). He then told me that due to new registration requirements that came into effect last month, the alien registration card (#4 on the list above) is not good enough and I need to go to my city office and get a Resident Certificate that shows my country of origin. So, I took my prepared package together with an empty application to which the officer affixed my photo and the fee stamps and I went back home. Along the way, I stopped at the city office to get my Resident Certificate (about 300yen fee ~$4).
Since the government offices are closed on the weekends, I had to come back on Monday. Since I knew that the office closes at 1:30, I went early in the morning. I bicycled again and got there at around 10. There were about 10 people waiting near window 12. I thought that since I already had all my documents in order, I can get some kind of faster treatment but I had to take a number and wait in line until everybody before me gets served. This took around 4 hours during which I had a bite to eat in the cafeteria in the building (Nagoya's specialty - kishimen):
When it finally become my turn, it was around 2:30pm and of course the license office was already closed. So the lady that actually spoke very good English informed me that all my documents are now in order and that I should come back tomorrow early to stand in line and get the license - it should only take 1.5hrs. I biked back home and run into this very nice looking cloud:
The next day, on Tuesday, I went there at around 10. The line to the window was quite large. I waited about 1hr to be served (turned out to be the same English speaking lady from yesterday and she said she was sorry that I had to come back so many times but it is quick now). Then she told me to go to the eye exam window and do an eye test. The eye test was pretty easy although you had to say in Japanese up/down/left/right to denote where an opening in a circle is. Then you had to say the colours of traffic lights that lit up (colourblindness test I guess). Then the person stamping my application that I passed the test told me that I need to take a picture so I need to go upstairs some some room. I went there and was informed that the pictures will be taken at 12:50 (2 hours from that time). This made me a bit angry since I really didn't see the purpose of having people wait so long for nothing. So I went out and grabbed lunch at a local Indian restaurant just across the street.
I came back to the building about noon. Went upstairs and tried to see where I should be waiting. I asked an officer in the window who told me where the photo room is. I went to the photo room and it was full with young people waiting for something so I sat down briefly. Then I noticed that there are signs posted that you have to pay for the photo first so I left the room. Since the waiting room upstairs was already closed, I went downstairs to ask at the #12 window. The nice lady was there so I explained that I didn't know what to do next. She told me that I just need to wait at the waiting room upstairs and they will call my name at 12:50 and went with me to show me where - very kind of her. So then I waited and around 12:50, names of about 5 people were called, one of them mine so I picked up my application and was told to go to the photo room, which was empty at this time. They took our pictures and told us to go back downstairs to window #11 and pay for the picture (2050yen ~$26). By paying, we got a new application form with attached stamps where we needed to write down name, address, and some other stuff. We came back to the photo room and waited.
After about 15 minutes, they brought out our licenses and the lady was explaining several things about the license like the expiry date and other things. The licences were given for 3 years although they expire 1 month after your birthday so it is between 2-3 years. I was the only person there that received a beginner's license - all the other people exchanging their licences got regular licenses. As you might expect, I was a bit ticked off at that and wanted to know why although the lady there had no clue and didn't really want to say anything. Having a beginner's license means that whenever I drive, I have to affix a beginner's sign to the front and back of my car - if I don't do that, I can get a ticket from the police and lose a point of which I only have 3 (6 in the regular license). This lasts for 1 year after which I can get a regular license. I won't post a picture of my license here since I don't think that is a wise thing to do - if you really want to know how they look like, you can google for it and you will find several people that posted theirs (who knows why).
The cool thing about the licenses is that they have a chip so there was a machine where they told us to check our information by placing the card on the card reader and putting in our secret number. I went back downstairs to ask at window #12 about why with 15 years experience, I got a beginner's license. The officer was there who tried to be kind but really didn't seem to care about it. He basically told me (from what I could understand since he didn't speak English) that my passport was issued less than 1 year before coming to Japan and under that situation, I get beginner's license since they can't check if I actually drove for 1 year in my country (which I checked for later online and did find something to that effect although some people were able to get that fixed by providing some paperwork). I guess the old passport and the letter I got from Canada didn't have any effect since he didn't even want to look at them. He told me that I am lucky since another girl there from China had to pass her test 3 times in order to get her license (which is unfortunate for her and I am happy she finally managed to get it but it really has nothing to do with my situation). He very nicely smiling kept telling me that it is only for 1 year. Seeing that I am getting nothing more accomplished, I thanked him and left the building to bicycle back home.
So, all in all, was it really worth it? Maybe - it provided me with some hands on experience with Japanese bureaucracy. Although, I wasted 3 days (half days at least) and spent around $100. Everybody I talked to that was doing a license there was really surprised that I don't plan to buy a car - it was like "why are you getting a license then"? For me, I don't need a car - I can get by on a bicycle, however, I would also like to be able to rent a car and go on a trip somewhere sometime so I think having a license is good. It is also a form of government issued ID in Japan ;). I haven't driven in Japan so driving on the other side of the road will be a bit of a problem but hopefully nothing that I cannot get used to (I already find biking and walking on the streets normal). So, for those of you that will go through this license exchange program, this is the information you actually need (from my experience):
1. valid Driver's License from your home country (gotten at least 3 months before coming to Japan) [if you recently renewed your license, bring old passports or old licenses with you]
2. official translation of the Driver's License into Japanese [JAF does a good job for an expensive 3000yen]
3. copies of your passport(s) that include entry/exit stamps [if your passport was made less than 1 year before coming to Japan, you will get a beginner's license unless somehow (I don't know how exactly) you can prove something or other]
4.
5. 1 photograph [you will need to take a separate photograph during the application process]
