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[senorwaq]

3 times!!!!! 3 times I went to the driving centre in an effort to get my Japanese drivers licence. I have a UK paper drivers licence and a photocard.

If you change address in Britain you get a new photocard but you keep the same picture on your card. The picture is valid for 10 years. So when I changed my address after a year the new card is only valid for 9 years because I'm using the same photo.

Simple explanation.

The records of the Japanese driving agency say the photocard should be valid for 10 years. They want to know why mine is only valid for 9 years.

The British driving agency can't give me anything they trust. I could get a full driving history but it still wouldn't explain the difference.

I live in a small city- I have to speak to the same rancid infuriating woman at the driving agency every time. I wonder which one of us is more irritated.............

I'm contemplating moving just to not have to deal with the small town mentality.

I contacted the embassy to complain- they didn't help.

I'm going to get a new photocard valid for 10 years but I have a feeling this woman is still going to want to know why my old card was only valid for 9 years.

I understand she has to be careful and they need to know- but I want to reach through the glass booth and shake the bureaucracy out of her.

Why am I writing>>>> Do I need advice...... I guess I've explored every option except moving. I just want to know other people have experienced this!!!!!!!!

[Brooks]

that sucks.
Well the cops run the show and some are so rigid.
How long have you had the card with your updated address?
Usually Brits have an easy time.
I am American, so I had to do the written test and driving test.

When I went I brought in my old license from New York and the newer one (since 2005) since I read somewhere that the license had to be from before I lived in Japan.

Where do you live?

[ironopolis]

senorwaq,
My UK driving licence is the old paper type - the one that has no photo and is valid for up to 53 years! Personally, I didn't have a problem when I changed mine and in fact I had a couple of people dealing with my application who were obviously quite excited at having a slightly different one to process and it seemed I was speeded through some of it, being allowed to jump a couple of queues.

However, I do have other British friends elsewhere in Japan with similar experiences to you. One had the old paper licence and passed his test 15 years before trying to get his Japanese licence. It still had decades of validity on it, but they gave him a hard time because the issue date on it was only 18 months before, and he'd been in Japan all of that time. So they claimed he didn't satisfy the requirement of being in his home country for 3 months after getting the licence.

Of course, the "issue date" was the time the licence was printed with his parents' new address on it. There was also clearly shown on the licence the date when he passed his test and therefore became a full licence holder - but they weren't interested in that! He had actually been back to Britain for 2 long summer breaks of 6 weeks or so during the 18 month period since the re-issue of the address amended licence and tried to claim that he therefore did in fact satisfy the 3 months in country of licence requirement after all. But they wouldn't accept that because although there were passport stamps to prove he'd been out of Japan, there were none to show he entered the UK !!

I know he resolved it all in the end, but I'm not sure how.

I'm not surprised you got no help from the embassy. All my experience, and that of other UK citizens I know in Japan, suggests the UK embassy and consulates are happy to represent what they consider to be the UK's interests in Japan, but British nationals requiring their help can take a running jump...unless they're paying some money!

I renewed my licence recently, and when I called them to enquire about weekend opening times as I was busy or out of town an weekdays, they told me I could go to any other licensing office in the same prefecture. Not sure if it's the same for an initial application, but maybe worth a try?


Anyway, good luck, mate, hope you can get it sorted somehow.