By entering a driving school
Obtain a license by entering a designated driving school and taking the lessons needed to acquire driving skills and accumulate driving knowledge.
Most driving schools offer driving lessons and classes only in Japanese.
1.Enter a designated driving school
please bring| (1) | Your Alien Registration Card (copy of your resident card showing your permanent domicile, if you are a Japanese national) and your Japanese driver's license(if obtained). |
| (2) | Your personal seal (signatures are also accepted). |
| (3) | Necessary fee for registration. |
Foreigners all over Japan are using textbooks originally developed and published in English.
To obtain a regular motor vehicle license
Entry conditions- Minimum age
your age must be at least 17 years and 10 months (2 months before your 18th birthday). - Must have passed the school's aptitude test (eyesight, hearing and color recognition).
You can choose between the limited automatic-only license or the manual license. If you obtain the limited automatic-only license, you cannot drive manual-transmission vehicles
People taking our English courses tend to ask lots of questions to our instructor during classroom lessons, which makes the atmosphere more friendly.
| License already obtained | 1st step | 2nd step | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lectures | Skills | Lectures | Skills | ||
| None | AT | Aptitude test & 10 lessons | 12h | 16 lessons | 19h |
| MT | 15h | ||||
| Motorcycle | AT | Aptitude test | 10h | 2 lessons | 19h |
| MT | 13h | ||||
To obtain a motorcycle license
Determine which type of motorcycle license to obtain.
- The following types of motorcycle licenses are available in Japan.
- Large-sized motorcycle ... Unlimited
- Middle-sized motorcycle ... 400 cc or smaller
- Small-sized motorcycle ... 125 cc or small
Entry conditions
- Minimum age
Middle-sized/small-sized motorcycle must be at least 15 years and 10 months old (2 months before your 16th birthday). Large-sized motorcycle must by at least 17 years and 10 months old (2 months before your 18th birthday). - Must have passed the school’s aptitude test (eyesight, hearing and color recognition) and the preliminary test (pull a motorcycle up and others).
You can choose between the limited automatic-only license or the manual license. If you obtain the limited automatic-only license, you cannot drive manual-transmission vehicles.
Large motorcycle
| Lecense to be obtained | License already obtained | Lectures | Skills | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large-sized motorcycle | MT | Middle-sized motorcycle | 1 | Aptitude test | 12 |
| Middle-sized motorcycle AT | 16 | ||||
| Middle-sized motorcycle | AT | Regular motor vehicle | 1 | Aptitude test | 13 |
| None | 26 | 17 | |||
| MT | Regular motor vehicle | 1 | Aptitude test | 17 | |
| None | 26 | 19 | |||
| Small-sized motorcycle | AT | Regular motor vehicle | 1 | Aptitude test | 8 |
| None | 26 | 9 | |||
| MT | Regular motor vehicle | 1 | Aptitude test | 10 | |
| None | 26 | 12 | |||
2.Receive a diploma
Once you pass the graduation test, a diploma will be issued. The diploma is valid for one year from the date of issue.
3.Take your diploma and go to the test site
Take your diploma and go to the test site in the prefecture in which your certificate of alien registration is currently registered.
| (1) | Take the aptitude text Take the eyesight, color recognition and hearing tests. |
| (2) | Take the written driving knowledge examination |
Answer at least 90 out of 100 questions correctly (at least 90%) on the written driving knowledge examination (true-false test). (This is not required if you already have another type of driver's license.)
You can take the written driving knowledge examination in English in the following 25 prefectures only.
1.Tokyo 2.Kanagawa 3.Saitama 4.Chiba 5.Hokkaido 6.Miyagi 7.Akita 8.Yamagata 9.Niigata 10.Aichi 11.Gifu 12.Shizuoka 13.Osaka 14.Hyogo 15.Kyoto 16.Shiga 17.Hiroshima 18.Tokushima 19.Fukuoka 20.Nagasaki 21.Kumamoto 22.Oita 23.Miyazaki 24.Kagoshima 25.Okinawa
