As the number of foreign residents in Japan increases, the National Police Agency plans to promote the introduction of multilingual written exams required when obtaining a driver's license.
Each prefectural police force prepares their own written exam questions, while the NPA creates example questions in four languages for internal use. Through doubling the number of the languages to eight, the NPA will encourage local police departments to offer the written exams in a wider variety of languages.
The number of foreigners holding a Japanese driver's license has been on the rise in line with the increase in the number of foreign residents. A record number of about 910,000 foreigners had obtained a Japanese driver's license by the end of 2018, the most since the government began compiling data in 2001.
Just like Japanese nationals, foreign residents in principle also have to pass written and skill exams and satisfy other requirements at prefectural police driver's license centers.
Written exam questions drawn up by prefectural police are based on actual conditions and requests from foreigners living in the area, while referring to the NPA's model questions.
Although English language written exams are offered across the nation, in Aichi Prefecture, where many Brazilians live, written exams are available in Portuguese in addition to English and Chinese. In addition to these three languages, Kanagawa prefectural police offer the written exam in Vietnamese.
The NPA has produced written exam example questions in the four languages of English, Chinese, Portuguese and Vietnamese. It has decided to add Indonesian, Nepali, Thai and Tagalog of the Philippines in fiscal 2020, as the number of foreign workers is expected to increase following the establishment of a new type of residential status in April last year under the system for holders of "specified skills."
The written exam questions are not open to public preview, but generally they ask how to read traffic signs and essential driving rules.
More options for license holders
Foreign residents holding a driver's license of their country of origin can switch their license to a Japanese one when they pass relatively simple exams. Among some requirements are a written exam intended to confirm their driving knowledge that has fewer questions than normal, in addition to driving skill checks. The NPA plans to increase the number of languages used in model questions for such written exams from the current 10 to 15 by adding Burmese, Mongolian and others.
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