Sixteen hours of driving, a one-night stay at a hotel, 3 weeks of waiting for an appointment, and 8 hours of waiting around in a reception area. This is what one might be expected to endure for a special surgery, but in the Land of the Rising Bureaucracy, this is what it takes to exchange your driver’s license.
Gu, my wife, and I had been in Japan since March, and, since August, had become residents of Myoko city in Niigata prefecture. The whole time we had been driving, and even bought a 1991 Toyota Landcruiser, using our Canadian driver’s licenses in conjunction with an international driving permit. The permit is a translation of your driver’s license into various languages like French, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, etc. However they only last one year and ours were about to expire.
Given Gu’s experience of trading in her Korean driver’s license for a Canadian one while we were living in Vancouver, we thought it would be a fairly straightforward process. In Canada, Gu brought her Korean license to the licensing centre and had a BC driver’s license in her hands in 20 minutes.
Our first attempt at exchanging licenses was at the Police Station. They had no idea how to exchange a foreign license for a Japanese one but were nice enough to call the prefectural licensing centre and ask on our behalf. We were told to go to the licensing centre in Niigata city, which is about a 3 hour drive. We were also told that we had to prove we had held a license for at least 3 months in the issuing country. Considering I have held a license in Canada for twenty years, it shouldn’t have been a problem… or so I thought.
As example procrastinators, we left it to the day before our international permits expired to go to the licensing centre in Niigata city. Leaving early morning and arriving around 11 am at the centre, we arrived just in time for their 2-hour lunch break. No problem, we can have a 2-hour lunch break as well.
I had prepared what seemed to me as a reasonable amount of documentation — not so heavy as to cause wrist strain but of considerable weight and neatly tucked into a transparent folder:
- Canadian Driver’s Licenses
- International Driving Permits
- Passports
- Residence Cards
- Residence Certificates (proving we’re residents of Niigata prefecture)
- Apartment Lease from Vancouver (to prove we were in Canada for more than 3 months)
However, we had made several fatal mistakes. The international driving permits, while they are a translation of my license, meant nothing — I had to get a translation from JAF japanese automobile federation. Also, my passport had no Canadian entry stamps on it. I had visited Japan twice in 2018 and had entry stamps and exit stamps from Japan but they weren’t convinced I had returned to my home country — I was told it seems like I was hardly there. Even an apartment lease wasn’t sufficient. Again, I was told that renting an apartment doesn’t prove I was there — too true.
Our last mistake was that we needed an appointment and the earliest appointment was 3 weeks away. The clerk was very nice — but helpful and nice are very different things.
With the appointment 3 weeks away and our international permits expiring we were in what one might call a pickle. We were fortunate enough to have Gu’s dad go to the police station in Korea with a photo of Gu. He argued with the cops until they made him a driver’s license and an international permit. After receiving them in the mail, I can see why he had to argue so much. I don’t think she was old enough to drive in the photo he gave them.
Three weeks later I came armed with what I thought were big guns: my original UBC diploma, 2 years of tax returns, copies of flight tickets showing that despite the lack of entry stamps I had in fact returned to Canada, and a copy of my driving record showing that I had held a license since 2000.
As we stayed in a hotel near the licensing centre the night before, we arrived early for our 8:30 am appointment. In the end, we were successful. We are now both carrying Japanese driver’s licenses. However, my diploma was not considered sufficient proof as it didn’t include a start date — somehow I graduated without being in the country. In the end, I provided enrolment letters.
Four hours later, we had driver’s licenses in our hands. By my count, a civil servant can process 2 applications to exchange a foreign license per day. The process cost us a lot of time and money and reinforced our impression of Japan’s bureaucracy as useless and short-sighted. However, we only paid $100 for both licenses — I’m sure the Japanese taxpayers paid a lot more.
Lingue 많이 Sprechen. C'est とても Cool. 