Japanese driver's licenses, before and after naturalization

(that's actually a European license)

If you had a Japanese driver's license before you naturalized, you will have to change both you name and your 本籍 {honseki} (registered domicile [for your family register]) on it. Your original name on the front will remain unchanged on the front and they will simply add a two notations on the back indicating your new Japanese new and indicating that the 本籍 {honseki} (registered domicile) has changed. Additionally, they will reprogram the IC chip inside so that it reflects the new name and the new registered domicile.

Unfortunately, despite this major change to your identification, you will have to wait until near the ".. valid until" (‥まで有効 {made yūkō}) date to get a fresh license. And you will still have to live with the damn awful photo.

After bringing your updated 住民票 {jūminhyō} (proof of residency registration) and you license to a center to update (no fee or charge), my license looked like this:

(yes, it says I can drive a manual transmission)

Note that for foreigners, the 氏名 {shimei} (full name) will be exactly the same as what is on your passport. Since my license was made during the time that the ARC (Alien Registration Card) or 外国人登録証明書 {gaikokujin tōroku shōmeisho} existed, it also had my Japanese 通称 {tsūshō} (alias) on it.

When my first Japanese driver's license was printed, they didn't include the 通称 {tsūshō} (alias) on it. When they issued it to me, they asked me if there were any errors. I said my alias was missing. They asked what it should be, I said that to avoid confusion, I'd like my license to be identical to my ARC (Alien Registration Card; 外国人登録証明書 {gaikokujin tōroku shōmeisho}). They agreed with that logic, and reprinted it with my alias. I do not know if the 通称 {tsūshō} (alias) was also encoded electronically in the IC chip inside the card.

On the back it the first line says 本籍変更 {honseki henkō} (change of registered domicile) on it, but it does not say what to. You will also note that the 本籍 {honseki} (registered domicile) field on line two (2) of the front of the card is completely blank.

In the past they used to write the 本籍 {honseki} (registered domicile) field on the card. For Japanese this would be the full address, down to the block number, of where your 戸籍 {koseki} (family register) records are kept. Foreign residents don't have a Japanese 戸籍 {koseki} (family register), so instead this field contains your country of nationality in Japanese. So in my case, the field used to (digitally, not printed) contain the value 『アメリカ合衆国』 {"Amerika Gasshūkoku"} (United States of America). Now it says something similar to 『大阪府○○市○○区○○１−２』 {Ōsaka-fu, XX-shi, XX-ku, XX 1-2} (Osaka Prefecture, XX City, XX Ward).

Because of this, a Japanese police officer or an immigration officer can use a Japanese driver's license as proof of identity and nationality. The airport officials don't like to publicize it (perhaps because they're worried people will become too relaxed with their passports), but they can use your non-expired Japanese driver's license in lieu of a passport if a problem should occur (for example, you lose your passport on the plane) and they need to verify your identity and nationality.

Similar to social security number privacy in the U.S., your 本籍 {honseki} is considered to be a tool that could be used to assist in fraud or identity theft, so they stopped printing it on the licenses.

This year, my driver's license expired and I went to renew it. As the computer already had my name and registered domicile updated, I did not need to fill out any forms indicating data had changed.

I did need to pay a renewal fee of ¥3,450 and take a refresher course that was one hour long.

If it is your first time getting a license or you have had two or more (or one serious) moving violation since your last renewal, it's ¥4,000 and you have to take a two (2) hour refresher course, with lots of true stories about mothers who lost their children due to people lot using their mirrors or missing stop signs.

I had one minor violation (I changed lanes on a multi-lane road where it was prohibited), so I took the 一般 {ippan} (general) route of a one (1) hour refresher course and paid the middle fee.

As for my one "moving violation": it was traffic safety week, and the police were out in full force. One officer was in the middle of the road in an area separating the dividing area between the side road and a crossing ramp. I thought he was directing traffic due to an accident up ahead, so I changed lanes right in front of him despite it being a no-change lane area.
When he examined my license, we quickly figured out (without even using a computer to read the 本籍 {honseki} on the IC chip that I was naturalized. Despite this, he made a mistake and wrote the wrong name (the old ローマ字 {rōmaji} ([passport] Latin letter) one on the front) and I had to correct him.

If you are a "good" driver (defined as ten years with no accidents or moving violations), you only have to take a 30 minute course and pay ¥3,100. You can tell if someone has "good" driver status because their license will have a gold band.

They punched a hole through the center of my old license (which breaks the antenna / power inducer to the IC chip and renders it useless) and returned it to me. The lecturer told us, for our protection, we should destroy/shred our old license, but he acknowledged that some people like to keep theirs as a souvenir.

Using your mobile phone or falling asleep during the lecture, by the way, is prohibited. If you do, they will make you retake the course later in the day (or another day if no other course or spot is available) in order to get your renewed license.

You will take a new picture on site (you cannot bring a photo with you) before the lecture and right after checking your eyes, and you will choose two new 4-digit PINs (in other words, an eight (8) digit password) used to protect the information for your contact-less IC chip card. Without knowing the PIN, "skimming" your card is useless as the information is encrypted.

My new license looked like this:

There are three big changes with my new driver's license (besides the better photo):

1. My name is in 全角 {zenkaku} ("full width") Japanese, not my passport name in ローマ字 {rōmaji} (Latin letters) and alias (通称 {tsūshō}) in parenthesis. Additionally, the name is printed using "Asian Justification" (文字の均等割り付け {moji no kintōwaritsuke})、 which is a typographic technique used for 漢字 {kanji} where the space is inserted between all characters (including the 全角スペース {zenkaku supēsu} (sinogram-width space) separating the family & given name) so it lines up with either margins or other words & phrases above and below it. With foreign names using 半角文字 {hankaku moji} (half-[sinogram]-width [monospace] characters), the name is plain "left justified".
2. Line 2, which used to be where the no-longer used printed 本籍 {honseki} (registered domicile) field used to be, is no longer redundantly there. The field is still digitally stored in the IC chip encrypted.
3. The bottom half of the reverse side of the card is now for organ donation. I used to carry a separate card and then register this info on the internet. To encourage people to sign up, they now do this with the license. You are not required to fill it out, nor do you have to record the information on the internet.
   
   Choose option ① if you give your organs in the case of brain death or the heart stops. Choose option ② if you give your organs only if your heart stops. Choose option ③ if you explicitly give no organs.
   
   You can optionally select certain organs you choose not to donate by crossing them out with a 『×』: 心臓 {shinzō} (heart), 肺 {hai} (lungs), 肝臓 {kanzō} (liver), 腎臓 {jinzō} (kidneys), 膵臓 {suizō} (pancreas), 小腸 {shōchō} (small intestines), 眼球 {gankyū} (eyeballs).
   
   You can give special instructions or conditions in the 特記欄 {tokkiran} (special notation area). You must sign and date it for it to be effective.

After getting the license you then confirm and test the contents of the IC card by going to one of many terminals in the center, placing your card on the reader, and input all eight digits from the two of your PINs which protect the contents. Upon doing this, you will see this screen:

Even though the license photograph is in color on the real thing, the IC chip version is in B&W for some reason. The 本籍 {honseki} (registered domicile) field, which is invisible to the human eye, is now visible. If you press the 本籍印刷 {honseki insatsu} (print registered domicile) button on the bottom left, it will print this out along with the 交付日付 {kōfuhizuke} (license issue date) on a small credit card sized piece of paper. There is another button labeled 詳細 {shōsai} (details), but it was dimmed out and disabled for me so I don't know what it displays for others.

After getting your license you may then wish to get a International Driving Permit so you can use your driver's license overseas while traveling. You get this separately from many places. It is a small booklet with pages consisting of translations of the meaning of the fields on the identification page:

There's a few interesting things about the "International Driving Permit":

• Your birthplace (in my case, U.S.A. on line #3) is listed on the permit, but your nationality/citizenship is not. Birthplaces are not listed on Japanese driver's licenses. Thus, it is possible that some rental car agents may mistakenly think I'm a U.S. citizen from my licenses.
• While the license will note if you're capable of driving larger or special vehicles (same as a Japanese driver's license), it does not list whether you can use a manual transmission. In my case, the second letter "B" circle is stamped, meaning I can operate a vehicle with up to eight (8) seats weighing up to 3500kg and can pull a light trailer.
• The International Driver's License is multilingual, with the following languages: Japanese, English, French, Spanish, Russian, and (simplified) Chinese.
• The permit expires in one year, and the permit's expiration date is not linked to the driver's license issue or expiration date. In Japan, the permit costs ¥2,400 and you need to supply a passport-spec photo. You need some sort of evidence that you are going to travel overseas (a passport will do) to receive one.

A international driver's permit is not valid unless it's presented with the original driver's license. This goes for when you need to present it to a rental car dealership or a police officer.

I've had a bit of trouble in the past with renting cars overseas with my Japanese driver's license, because the person behind the counter needs to confirm the name, date of expiration, and the birthdate on the license. The problem with Japanese driver's licenses is that all of this information is in Japanese. Even the expiration date and birthdate are not understandable to the average non-Japanese: the years are in 和暦 {wareki} (Japanese year of the emperor), not 西暦 {seireki} (Western Calendar).

In California, I've been lucky to get a few Hertz employees who were Japanese-American or Chinese-American or very familiar with Japanese tourists who knew how to read a Japanese license, but in other places I've gone to I've had to explain and translate the fields on the spot for the agents.

One quick warning: if you are a resident of Japan, you cannot use an international driver's permit instead of a real Japanese driver's license to drive in Japan – even if you are a foreigner.