50cc scooter licence

[sadie]

Has anyone out there taken the Japanese 50 cc scooter test, in Japanese? If so, how hard is it? Is it easy to understand? Thanks!

 

[GaijinPunch]

I've not taken it, but I took the straight up "no driving school driving test". It's not hard, but you have to get 90% or above. They have all tests in many langauges (English benig one of course) so that's a plus. The minus is, they are very much Engrish. Throw in them trying to be sly, and it can be tricky. I literally had 4 negatives in ONE short sentence.

My friend took the 50CC test twice (two days consecutively) and passed the second time. He said the hardest part is the Engrish. Just study the books (they sell study materials in English too) and you should be fine.

 

[Ewok85]

The Japan Biker F.A.Q.: Driver's License Info

Have fun

 

[Index]

The Japan Biker F.A.Q.: Driver's License Info

Have fun

Good info, but I think the bit about international licences is misleading;

Japan only allows the use of an international license for up to one year after your latest entry into the country (even if the international license would otherwise not be expired).

This could be interpreted as meaning that after one year if you left Japan for a while and then returned again, your international licence (which only lasts a year so you'd have to get a new one anyway in your home country) would allow you to use your international licence in Japan for another year. Unfortunately this is only the case if you return to your 'home' country for at least three months. I only found out about this after I had an accident in Japan on my bike. If, after the first year, you left Japan for under three months and returned, then strictly speaking your international licence would no longer be valid.

At the time of my accident this info was very hard to obtain so the matter was not entirely clear. I don't know if it has been made more easily available, but be careful.

 

[GaijinPunch]

Hearsay for gaijin driving laws are shoddy at best. Get the license... international is just not worth it. They used to be very lax on this, and then they came out with the 12 month rule. It could very well lapse on you, which means your insurance is no longer valid, and you bump into a brand new Merc and have to pay 200,000 yen to get it fixed (yes, this happened to me). The cop even threatened to deport me if I rode my scooter again w/o the license.