This is going to be my first post in english, so please be kind. Maybe you don’t know, but I learned english at my school, a really not-so-good-high-school to be honest, but, let be honest, english is easier than spanish. Well, another source of my studies where the lyrics of songs and watching a lot of videos in english. Anyway, here we go.
So I want to have a japanese driver license, why? Because in any emergency or if I want to travel inside this country it will be nice to be able to drive a car. I’ve been driving since 2007, so almost 20 years, I haven’t had any major accidents to be honest, so I think I’m not a bad driver .
So in Japan you can apply for a driver license from scratch, as any japanese person will do, or, if you have a foreigner driver license you can “transform” it into a local one. Japan have an agreement with 29 countries, where you just can simple “swap” your foreign driver lincese for a local one, and guess what, yes, you are right, Peru is not part of it, but, just relax and enjoy the journy in this post.
But there is an option, as a person with a foreign license, you can transform it on 2 simple steps, you will see why I say simple. You just need to pass a writing and a practical exam. I’m going to talk about them on this post.
So, in order to transfer it, you need to first translate your license, this cost me 4K Yen, but I think the price is now on 6K Yen, but you can only do it with the JAF. It was kinda hard to find the right link but at the end you can manage to do it. Oh yes, another kindly reminder, you can’t present a “virtual driver license” as we have in Peru, it should be a physical one… what I can say… Japan is… Japan :). This thing take up to 2 days, and is quite simple, they will send you a code, then you go to a combini and you print it, voilá!
Well, that’s the easy part, now the not so friendly one… Now you need to make a reservation in order to starte all the process, to be honest, this was a pain in the ass. I go a code, wait like 2 weeks, went to take the exam and my reservation was for another type of license xD, so they gave me the correct link (YES! I went to Fuchuu for nothing) and well, I did the reservation at that moment, the closest one was in two months, yes honey, two months, this diverse one of the top countries in the whole universe can handle so much technology. Well, anyway, now study and wait.
Studing for the exam
About where to study, I found an App on the AppStore, I study using that app for the first time that I went to Fuchuu but didn’t take the exam. If I’m honest, I won’t recommend it, a lot of mistakes, but at least they have a facebook group that could help. Anyway, also I downloaded an old version of the rules of the road (?) and study from there, is quite a nice book to be honest, and makes a lot of sense.
One more thing, when I went to Fuchu the first time, I bought a mock up exam for something about 3000 or 4000 yen, I saw it as an investment and I guess should be really similar to the question that comes on the exam. With this mock up exam, like 11 in total, with a gross total of 880 questions, answer and explanation I started studing, and how did I do it? Simply, creating an excel file with the questions. But it was a huge task to do an OCR, export the answer, fig, copy images, etc etc. And here I need to thank Claude, no no, is not a friend, is the AI, than thing create for me an HTML file and it was soooooooooooo good, also with the help of Google Android AI Studio, I created and App, yes I did it! And I used it to practice on the densha.
But that is not all, also I use ChatGPT when I wasn’t getting the explanation from the test, it was good, you just need to use a good promp, something like “don’t be stupid” should be enought xD, nah, but of course sometimes it was wrong 🙁
Lasty, something that I didn’t use but I think it could help a lot of people, it was a guy how created a github as mock up exams, it was harder than the ones that I got, but those share a lot of questions.
The Day of the written Exam
Here, you need to go early, like 8:30-9am and is only to present your documents and to make you some questions. Thanks to kamisama and Kakaroto that the policewoman how interview me speaked english, she asked some question like: What Language do you want the exam? Do you want the Driver License to be attached on your MyNumber? (she recommended me to not do that and to have two different documents), How did you learn to drive? How taught you to drive? What kind of test did you take? Can you remember something about those test? Let me know, Please, with this car (toy car) show me how was the circuit that you did, etc etc. I gave her my passport (x2), my peruvian drive license, my migratory movements, yumihyo, MyNumber, Residence Card, MyPhoto, and my prayers, I was so close to almost give her my last name, but she didn’t want it :(, her loss xD. Fun fact, I heard she speaking about my passport, I guess because of my migratory movements, yes girl, I used to travel, a special thanks to the sponsors of those trips… my parents :3
Anyway, they said that the exam could be that day but at 1:30. Yes, you read it right, that late, so I need to wait 4 hours. I found some people who speak spanish and they had the same our. I was going to take it on english, why? Tell me why, Ain’t nothin’ but a heartache, because all the things I read in order to practice for the exam was in english, also, I knew they have a crappy english translation, so I guess the spanish could be worse. So I did it.
All the people went back at 1:30 and then you enter the room, you need to bring a paper that they give you at the morning, you show it an they will give you 2 pen, 1 eraser, a row and you need to find your seat, I was “A 285”. After that, they start explaining everything in nihongo, of course I understood nothing xd, but there I was. Well, then the exam started, I was, this shiet doesn’t look like any of those 880 questions that I took! but as peruvian I have something that most of the world don’t have… faith. So I pray the lord xD, and I start it. I think almost 15% of the questions where tricky. And as a Engineer I thought people, the chance of success if 50%, so if I answer this 8 questions true, I’ll fail only in 4, and I can only afford to fail 5 in the whole exam…. but I follow my brain I gave the best of me, I finished 3 minutes before the time, I went out and I was “close but no cigar”
I was 緊張, I was sure that I wasn’t going to make it for so close, and that made me mad, because I will need to go over there al lose half day on a exam. It end up at 2:30 or something, and they will give you the results at 3, so now again, to wait.
So we went back to the classroon (?) and the explain sometings in japanese. Then they start giving the results, they will give you a paper, starting with my row. They gave it to one girl, then they were approaching me with a paper, on my mind I was “YES!” then they skiped me and gave it to the next person… I was sad. Then, do you remember that I spoke with some people who speak spanish? The girl was in front of me, and the person who they gave the paper was behind of me (they are married), and she (a japanese who used to live in Mexico) said “oh, fallaste, le están dando el papel a los que fallaron para que vuelvan a sacar cita para el examen”. So this means that I’ve passed? Yes sir, it does! 飲みましょう！ SACA LAS CHELAS, PERÚ!
But this wasn’t over, no sir. Now we need to make the reservation for the practical exam. We waited a lot, and a lady came, and she wrote on the screen the days that were available and how many spots did she have. The closest was on July 10th, only 2 spots. And the lady starte calling names. I was maybe the number 5 o 6 that she called, I’m pretty sure that it was in order of the documents registration, so, go early! I picked up the closest day. What it over? Oh hell no…
Now the lady went out and we waited some more, she went to print the codes for the reservation, she gave us the paper and well, now I have my reservation. Will I pass, I don’t know, but I have faith, oh yes.
At the end, I went out and sold my mock up exams to the mexican guy who failed, I mean it was half the price that I payed. Also I told him that maybe it was better to take the exam in english, because I’m pretty sure their spanish could be a little confusing, as my english on this post.
My recommendations:
- Ceviche, a good peruvian ceviche is always recommended
- Go early to present your documents
- Buy the mock up exam
- Study in english, there is a lot of material for this
- For the translation of your migratory moovements you can do it with ChatGPT, they don’t care
- They only care of the translation of your driven license
- Go with someone who speaks japanese, maybe you are not that lucky as me and the person who interviews you doesn’t speak english
- Be prepare to wait a lot
- If you don’t understand a question, try to think if that is the safest thing to do, if yes, then true
- If you only study from that Harikomen app, you will fail
- If you go without studing at all, you’ll fail for sure. You maybe think this is obvious but before it was only 10 questions and you can pass with only 7 correct answers, they said that you coudl pass without studing, that the questions were really basic
- Don’t be afraid of using AI in order to get some answer, most of them will be correct
- For do the first reservation do it really early so you can find a spot in 2 months
- Be carefull to don’t reserve a wrong appoinment as I did. If you get a QR, then 違う, you shouldn’t have any QR and bring the paper of your reservation to the place
- If you fail it means that at least you are trying. I was lucky, but I studied a lot and felt that I failed.
I’ll keep you updated, or not, it will depend on my mood.
Also, I just realized this is my first post in the whole 2026. I hope more things are about to come. I thing I’m going to buy a car, I’m not jocking.
Thanks for reading me. If you are about to take the exam, I wish you sucess, the luck could be also bad ;), kisses