Registering your car by yourself is an experience not even all Japanese people get to have. With our busy lives, registering your car and getting new plates may seem like a good time to pay someone to do it for you. However, doing it yourself can save you money and even give you an insight into the government side of vehicle management.
Paper Pushers
There is something inherently exciting about bureaucracy. I don’t know if it’s the adrenaline rush of showing up to office ABC with forms X, Y, and Z all stamped and sealed by M, N, O, P, Q, and R respectively and in their own individual envelopes with return postage already attached and taking them to window E4 between 10:07 and 11:34 AM. Or maybe it’s the tremors in the little voice in the back of your head still not 100% convinced you have all of your documents together. Yet, nothing seems to compare to the feeling of accomplishment that comes with an official piece of paper… sort of…
With my passion for rules, regulations, and filling in circles on forms, I naturally leapt at the chance to cruise down Bureaucracy Lane to register a vehicle. However, even for me, the process was a lot to handle at first. But having someone show me the ropes, it was (almost) a piece of cake! Well… in some ways more than others.
Layout
First, it is important to note that the Land Transport Bureau (陸運局, りくうんきょく) I visited was divided into several buildings: a reception area, a building for turning in documents, a building for taxes, and the Shaken pit. Each of the buildings was assigned a letter of the alphabet – presumably to make the process “easier.” However, those letters did not necessarily correspond to the order in which you must visit each building, so I didn’t really understand the point.
Clinging tightly to our mountain of documents, we strode into the reception building. At the counter, several staff members greeted us, and we paid a small fee to receive the necessary forms. Pens and stamps in hand, we filled in the little boxes and moved on to the next building.
Submitting the Forms
We submitted the forms to ensure that they were properly filled out. As it turned out, the name to which the vehicle was being registered was too long for our form. “What?! They’re not going to allow us to register the vehicle if the name is too long?!” I thought to myself. Presumably sensing my frustration, the attendant smiled and explained that we had to return to the first building to collect the “Your-Name-Is-Too-Long-Form” (not the real name of the form.) Then, we could submit that with the previous paperwork. After adhering to proper document submission procedure, it was the same procedure as at the doctor’s office (or just about anywhere else in Japan): wait around for our number to be called.
I came prepared with my book for the waiting portions, but everything took surprisingly less time than I had anticipated. We were generally called right after I had settled into my hard orange chair. However, with its happiness-sucking, bare walls, I was pleased to move on.
After being awarded seals of approval on each of our documents, we proceeded on to the tax office. Here again, we got in line and went through several different stations. Document inspection, calculation, and the cashier. We passed a small stack of large bills through a slot, got our change, and left.
The Plates
Little did I expect, we returned to the original building and again produced our ever-growing mountain of documents for confirmation. For our efforts, we were awarded a new set of license plates, a handful of screws, and a screwdriver (the metal sort, not the vodka). After attaching the new plates, we drove up to have the car inspected one final time.
Finally, with a nod, the inspector placed the anti-theft bolt on the license plate, and we drove off into the sunset.
Conclusion
In the end, the whole process took about an hour and a half. The most difficult part of the whole process was bringing the car to the office. However, if you are just transferring ownership (名義変更, めいぎへんこう), the vehicle should still be able to be driven to the office. So, if you have some time on a weekday and a new car, try registering it yourself.
Have you registered your car by yourself in Japan?
Tell us about it in a comment!
Post by Jordan (TOPRANK Co., Ltd.)
Wheels in Japan 