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Report on buying a motorbike in Japan

HanSolo

Sempai
6 May 2015
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Hi All,

Just dropping this here after having recently bought a motorbike, perhaps it could be useful or inspirational to someone.

There are a few considerations with buying a motorbike that I didn't consider before hand. Firstly, 125cc motorbikes are limited in their legal usability. To take a motorbike on the highway or to carry a passenger, you must have an engine size greater than 125cc (e.g. 250cc). On the other hand, 125cc motorbikes can be easier to park, since some bicycle/motorbike areas permit up to 125cc motorbikes, but no higher. So this is something to consider when you're choosing what you want (I chose greater-than-125cc). You should research these road rules, as there are a couple of other exceptional cases (e.g. I believe you also need to have had your license longer than 3 years to carry a passenger).

The first difficulty is finding a motorbike shop. I was only looking for a second hand motorbike, and there are a lot of these shops, but they don't necessarily list on google maps (searching with katakana 'baiku'). The easiest method I found to look for motorbikes is to search for them on goobike.com. Then, goobike has a map of the location of the shop with that bike. The bike I ended up getting was not listed, but I found it after looking around a shop I visited to inspect another listed bike.

To buy it, you will need certain things. From other people I've talked to, this will vary depending on your prefecture/municipality. In my case, the shop needed:
a) a proof of residence certificate (available from your local ward office) + your residence card
b) a copy of your license
c) cash
d) an inkan (to sign). In my case, it did not need to be registered.
e) a helmet (when you return to pick it up)

From a shop, they handle all the registration for you. The bikes are listed with the registration included in the price, with the 'bike price' written in small text. This also includes all the taxes, and generally one year of CTP insurance (which is cheaper if you opt to buy more than one year). This insurance is only third-party injury insurance. It doesn't cover anything else, such as third-party vehicle damage. The shop will generally offer other forms of insurance you can subscribe to on top of that.

My understanding of your own injury coverage in Japan under the national health insurance (which you'll have if you are a resident) is that you have to co-pay medical costs up to a ceiling of $30,000. If you think that ceiling is too much, there is an add-on insurance you can get to cover that. However, the major insurance you need against personal injury is obviously "being really careful". The driving in Japan is relatively pedestrian and careful, probably the least dangerous-feeling roads I've encountered. Certainly no chaos like in Vietnam, or brazen disregard for safety like in Thailand, or outright mania like in Taiwan.

Before you ride, you should read up on differences in Japanese road rules. One good example I didn't expect was regarding train lines: you are required to momentarily come to a complete stop before crossing a train line without exception. And people do do this.

At the shop, don't expect them to be able to speak any English. I can't speak much Japanese but we still managed to hack our way through the details using translation apps, without it taking too long.

For license, I just used my Australian license and an IDP (which is good for 12 months). Apparently, you can convert licenses from 'drive on the left' countries to a Japanese license without much difficulty, but I've yet to confirm this. I hear that for 'drive on the right' countries, you have to sit a full test the same as Japanese locals (which will be pricey and time consuming and I assume horribly bureaucratic).

For helmet and other gear, NAPS is a good national 'motorbike supermarket', at it shows up on google maps if you search it.

On my driving experience so far, one thing I've noticed is how expensive and numerous the toll roads are. For example, I used one toll road for about 5 minutes and it cost me around 700yen. Hence I've mostly just been sticking to the slower non-toll roads (tends to add about 50% to trip time, but I'm not in a hurry). There are some pretty awesome skyways though in Japan, which weave over the tops of cities, so they're definitely worth a ride on even if they do cost a fortune. Also witnessing the Japanese customer service manifest itself at petrol pumps has been nice to see -- the guy fills it up for you and even uses a special rag to prevent splashes onto your vehicle.

Also the added freedom as a whole is very pleasant. Public transport may be efficient in Japan, but nothing can beat the liberty and efficiency of door-to-door, zero-waiting transport like in the Thai and Vietnamese lifestyle.
 
That's extremely useful information, thanks for sharing!

Before you ride, you should read up on differences in Japanese road rules. One good example I didn't expect was regarding train lines: you are required to momentarily come to a complete stop before crossing a train line without exception. And people do do this.

My wife doesn't.

Apparently, you can convert licenses from 'drive on the left' countries to a Japanese license without much difficulty, but I've yet to confirm this. I hear that for 'drive on the right' countries, you have to sit a full test the same as Japanese locals (which will be pricey and time consuming and I assume horribly bureaucratic).

What is your source of information? I'd be very interested to know if this is official policy.

Also the added freedom as a whole is very pleasant. Public transport may be efficient in Japan, but nothing can beat the liberty and efficiency of door-to-door, zero-waiting transport like in the Thai and Vietnamese lifestyle.

I felt the same way when I started commuting on the road bike.

Enjoy your motorbike and be safe out there! 👍
 
I end up having to cut and paste this over and over again in regards to the mandatory "insurance" thing:

======
Most foreigners have a false sense of security due to the "JCI" (jibaiseki), mistakenly thinking it is insurance which protects THEM. It does nothing of the sort.

Jibaiseki is essentially a fund which pays out for injuries to others and doesn't deal with property damage at all.

Furthermore, if they actually have to pay out because of something you did...they're only fronting the money to the victim. They BILL YOU for every yen they paid out. If you don't have private insurance (nin'i hoken) to step in, that's out of YOUR POCKET.

JCI doesn't do jacksh!t to protect you and you should NOT think of it as "having insurance". Anybody riding or driving any vehicle on the streets without private insurance is opening themselves up to potential financial ruin.

Don't think of private insurance as "supplemental" insurance, since without it you're not insured to begin with.

PLEASE: never drive or ride with just JCI


======

Please tell me you're not riding around signed up for just the mandatory uninsured motorists scheme which exists to protect others against people who, ironically, are signed up for just the uninsured motorists scheme.

If you don't have nin'i hoken (任意保険) then please please please get your rear end to an insurance agent and get some right away. Again, the "insurance" attached to the bike when you registered it does NOTHING WHATSOEVER to protect you. (Same is true for any car owners who may be reading this). Traditionally, this misunderstanding of the nature of jibaiseki has lulled a great many foreign vehicle owners into thinking they are protected....those without a Japanese family member to protect them from themselves by insisting they get proper insurance are the most susceptible and vulnerable. Lots have learned some very hard lessons; they found out after an accident that they only thought they were protected and ended up facing some major bills.


An advantage of the <125cc bikes is that people who own a car can add the bike onto their regular car insurance as a "family bike" for ridiculously low rates.

A license is not required when purchasing a vehicle.

What kind of bike did you end up getting?
 
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I keep telling her, Mike. She's been lucky so far and still on her gold license.

Go ahead and memorize だからいったろう! and practice saying it so you'll be ready with a hearty "Told ya!" when the inevitable happens.

You also have to stop even if it is the wee hours of the morning and all the railroad employees are at home snug in their beds. Ask me how I know....

The cops will sometimes hide and just spend an otherwise boring shift writing tickets for failing to stop at crossings that no sane person would see any need to completely stop at.
 
On the JCI, I now have 3 points of information, all in conflict with each other.
The shop owner did not alert me to any limits on this third-party injury insurance. However the above claim that "if something is your fault, it just 'fronts' the money" makes no sense at all. The whole concept of 'liability insurance' is that if you are at fault, the insurance pays out. The following website says the following:
the maximum amount is 1.2 million JPY when a victim is hurt, 40 million JPY when a victim suffers residual disability, or 30 million JPY when a victim is killed, which is far from being sufficient. That is why you need "voluntary" insurance in addition to JCI."
Tips – Driving in Japan-ACE Insurance, Japan

To that end, I will be getting that voluntary insurance anyway (I planned too but I didn't have the necessary items with me to sign up at the time), but I'm not sure which 2 out of 3 people are lying about this topic and why.
 
On the JCI, I now have 3 points of information, all in conflict with each other.
The shop owner did not alert me to any limits on this third-party injury insurance. However the above claim that "if something is your fault, it just 'fronts' the money" makes no sense at all. The whole concept of 'liability insurance' is that if you are at fault, the insurance pays out. The following website says the following:

Tips – Driving in Japan-ACE Insurance, Japan

To that end, I will be getting that voluntary insurance anyway (I planned too but I didn't have the necessary items with me to sign up at the time), but I'm not sure which 2 out of 3 people are lying about this topic and why.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to stand corrected. My information turns out to have been in regard to one of two situations: no JCI; hit and run (money fronted until the culprit is known, then he gets the bill).

The lack of any property coverage or coverage for your own injuries (in the event of a single vehicle incident) make voluntary insurance a must. I know one guy who has spent years making payments to a taxi company to reimburse them for a taxi he rear-ended.... after having recently cancelled his voluntary instance "because I don't have accidents".

In the case of property damage is where you can really get reamed here, as there is no practice of getting multiple estimates on repairs and then having the work done by the shop with the lowest estimate.
 
I had one accident in Japan. I was stopped at a light and a brand new Porsche 911 just barely rubbed the bumper of my awesome 2003 Toyota WiLL Cypha as it tried to get into the left turn lane (no signal controlling the left turn, so he was a bit overly aggressive). The first thing that goes through my mind is "Even though I was stopped, somehow I'm going to get assessed some portion of the blame and have to pay for this chump's bumper, thank goodness I have insurance!"

I pulled over behind him and he was extremely uninterested in calling anyone about it. I was really leery about the idea, but I examined his car like a hawk and since I could detect absolutely no transfer of paint between our cars I let him off the hook.

Later I saw his car in the parking garage of my building... I always wondered which was his apartment.

Either way, even people who don't get into accidents, get into accidents.
 
I don't insure my car (collision?), but for anything else 無制限 is the option you should choose. (Or the max offered if that is not available.)
 
I don't insure my car (collision?), but for anything else 無制限 is the option you should choose. (Or the max offered if that is not available.)

There's no 対物? You don't have 任意保険?
 
Mike, like, duh..., are you purposefully misreading?

Anything other than my car is insured/protected to the max available--property, injury, etc. In some cases that means unlimited, in others the insurance company does have a figure they use for max claim.
 
Mike, like, duh..., are you purposefully misreading?

Neither purposely nor purposefully.

Did you purposely choose to interpret my two questions asking for clarification as being something other than that?

How is this not understandable?

Because "I don't insure my car" is in itself ambiguous. It can be taken to mean you have no insurance policy covering your car whatsoever or that you have no policy covering damage caused by yourself to your own car. The additional "(collision?)" bit is also ambiguous in that it leaves one to wonder if you have it and don't know what it is called or know what it is called but don't know if you have it. I hope this answers your question.
 
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