About Japanese Driver's License

Japanese driver's licenses are issued by the prefectural government's public safety commissions and are overseen on a nationwide basis by the National Police Agency.

List of the contents:

Types of Japanese driver's license
How to read the information on the driver's license card
The expiration of your first driver's license
The expiration of the driver's license (after the first renewal)
Renewing your driver's license
IMPORTANT

Types of Japanese driver's license

Classes

Name	English	Description
仮運転免許	Learner's permit (or provisional license)	Issued to a new driver undergoing training for their Class 1 license. Requires the driver to display learner's black-on-white plates on the exterior of the vehicle, and to be accompanied by a supervising experienced Class 1 license holder while driving. This license expires unless a learner driver gains a Class 1 license within six months.
第一種運転免許	Class 1 driver's license	The ordinary license for operating a private car.
第二種運転免許	Class 2 driver's license	Required when operating a commercial passenger-carrying vehicle such as a taxi or a bus. Driver must be 21 years of age or older and have at least three years of experience driving under a Class 1 license (relaxed to two years for members of the Japan Self-Defense Forces).

How to read the information on the driver's license card

	Item	Notes
1	Date of birth	Date format: (JP era name in kanji)YY/MM/DD The year follows the Japanese era calendar. See this page to convert Western years to the Japanese era years.
2	Name	Last name and first name
3	Address
4	Date of issue of the card	Date format: (JP era name in kanji)YY/MM/DD The year follows the Japanese era calendar. See this page to convert Western years to the Japanese era years. The background color differs depending on how experienced, or good driver the holder is. Green: Beginner driver Blue: Regular driver Gold: Excellent driver
5	Date of expiry of the card*	Date format: (JP era name in kanji)YY/MM/DD The year follows the Japanese era calendar. See this page to convert Western years to the Japanese era years.
6	Conditions	In this sample, vehicles weighing up to 8 tonnes. Usual default also includes a limitation to Automatic Transmission (AT); separate driving test on manual transmission vehicle required for this permission. If the driver is required to wear glasses or corrective lenses when driving, it will be stated here.
7	"Sample"	This doesn't appear on a normal license
8	Superior	Annotation for good drivers
9	License number
10	Date of first issue of motorcycle license	Including motorcycles (二輪車), small special vehicle (小型特殊自動車), or moped license (原動機付自転車).
11	Date of first issue of other licenses	Other categories exclude commercial ones.
12	Date of first issue of commercial licenses
13	Valid categories	Valid categories are shown in abbreviations in Kanji, invalid only with a hyphen.**
14	Number	Intra-office reference number.
15	Issuing authority	Public Safety Commission of a prefecture
16	Seal	Official seal of the prefectural public safety commission
17	Photo

*If the license was issued on 1st May 2019 or after, the year follows both the Japanese era calendar and Western calendar as shown below.
2025年(令和07年)12月26日まで有効 (Valid until 26th Dec 2025(7th year of Reiwa era))
**See the below table for more detailed information.

Categories of license

Abbreviated names of the categories of vehicles the license includes are shown. For illustrative purposes, the below table shows every category. Category names are in the same places on every license. If the category is not included in the license, there is a horizontal bar in the place where the category name is supposed to be.

Abbreviation in kanji	大型	中型	普通	大特	大自二	普自二	小自二	小特
English	Heavy vehicle	Medium vehicle	Ordinary vehicle	Heavy special vehicle	Heavy motorcycle	Ordinary motorcycle	Small motorcycle	Small special motorcycle

Abbreviation in kanji	原付	け引	大二	中二	普二	大特二	け引二
English	Moped	Tractor-trailor vehicle	Commercial heavy vehicle	Commercial medium vehicle	Commercial ordinary vehicle	Commercial heavy special vehicle	Commercial tractor-trailor vehicle

The expiration of your first driver's license

Your first driver's license is valid until one month after the third birthday counted from the issue date.

Example1):

Your date of birth: 5th November
Issue of your first driver's license: 3rd November 2020
The expiration date of your first driver's license: 5th December 2022 (one month after the third birthday counted from the issue date)

Example2):

Your date of birth: 5th November
Issue of your first driver's license: 6th November 2020
The expiration date of your first driver's license: 5th December 2023 (one month after the third birthday counted from the issue date)

The expiration of the driver's license (after the first renewal)

The validity period of a Japanese driver's license depending on;

the driver's driving history
the driver's age

Please refer to the below table for more details.

Driver category	The validity period of the license
Drivers who have had the license for less than 5 years	3 years*
Drivers who have incurred penalty points on their previous license
Drivers whose age is 71 or more
Drivers whose age is 70	4 years**
Drivers who fall under none of the above	5 years***

*The renewed license will be valid until one month after the third birthday counted from the expiry date of the previous license
**The renewed license will be valid until one month after the fourth birthday counted from the expiry date of the previous license
***The renewed license will be valid until one month after the fifth birthday counted from the expiry date of the previous license

Failing to renew your driver's license and continuing to drive after it expires can result in a fine and disqualification from driving. Therefore, beware of the expiry date stated on the license.

Renewing your driver's license

Please check out our webpage illustrating how to renew your driver's license

IMPORTANT

Make sure to change the address on your driver's license when you move from one place to another. Otherwise, you will not receive any notification for the renewal of your driver's license. Quite a few people have missed the expiry of their driver's licenses because of this.

After you have notified the municipality of your move, get a residence certificate with your nationality from the municipal office. Then take the original hardcopy of it along with your resident card and driver's license to the nearest police station to have the address changed on the driver's license.

Name	English	Description
大型自動車	Heavy vehicle	Any vehicle which weighs 11,000 kg or more in total, has a maximum capacity of 6,500 kg or more, or carries 30 or more people.
中型自動車	Medium vehicle	Any vehicle which weighs between 7,500 kg and 11,000 kg in total, has a maximum capacity between 4,500 kg and 7,500 kg, or carries 11 to 29 people.
準中型自動車	Semi-medium vehicle	Any vehicle which weighs between 3,500 kg and 7,500 kg in total, has a maximum capacity between 2,000 kg and 4,500 kg , and carries 10 or fewer people.
普通自動車	Ordinary vehicle	Any motorised vehicle which weighs less than 3,500 kg in total, has a maximum capacity less than 2,000 kg, and carries 10 or fewer people.
大型特殊自動車	Heavy special vehicle	Specialised automotive equipment such as tractors or cranes which are used for particular work and are not classified as small special vehicles.
小型特殊自動車	Small special vehicle	Specialized automotive equipment with a maximum speed of 15 km/h or less and no larger than 4.7m × 1.7m × 2.8m.
大型自動二輪車	Heavy motorcycle	Any motorcycle with engine displacement over 400cc.
普通自動二輪車	Ordinary motorcycle	Any motorcycle with engine displacement over 125cc.
小型自動二輪車	Small motorcycle	Any motorcycle with engine displacement over 50cc.
原動機付自転車	Moped	Any motorcycle with engine displacement of 50cc or less.