Close Topic Options

Japanese Driving Schools

Driving schools rev up with massages, manicures

Japanese driving schools are offering more than instruction behind the wheel, with Hawaiian massage and lessons in BMWs among the services available to compete for a dwindling number of potential students. Ref. Source 9

Schools Driving Japanese

Driving schools are BIG business in Japan. For your 2 week course (typically at a cost of about 3k USD), you will be taught how to drive and how to pass the driving test. Sounds pretty optional...but...it really isnt. If you are Japanese and do not take a Driving school course, it is almost 100% guaranteed that you will not pass the drivers test a few times (at a cost of approximately 40USD and a half a day of work for each try). It is one of those unwritten Japanese rules: You have to go to driving school before you can get your license. Even with driving school, it is pretty common to have to take the test 2 times.

I think this is a scam set up by retired police officers. Most of the driving inspectors are former police officers. You can also find a significant amount of former police officers that are driving instructors.

Japanese Driving Schools Reviews Consumer & Travel Family Culture

I assume it is all government regulated and controlled so that adds to the play? I also get the feeling that such prices are geared towards deterring or slowing down the populace from pursuing their driving license since things are relatively crowded on the roads?

Schools Driving Japanese

I don't think it is a deterrent more so than just another fee that has to be paid. By making the Driving School experience unofficially compulsary, they basically created a business that supports many jobs. The driving school companies pay taxes, people taking the courses pay taxes on the course and the driving school employees pay taxes as well, so the government is happy. You have to take the driving test a couple of times, so that makes sure that they need a few more driving inspectors...and they pay taxes.

The only real regulation the government has on it is that you do need a license to drive basically anything with a motor here.

Schools Driving Japanese

Is the Japanese driving test more difficult than the British driving test where the driving examiner actually tests you within the car (asks you the exam questions verbally and not multiple choice or written) and there are tests for emergency, highway driving (dual carriageway) and so forth?

Japanese Driving Schools

The driving test centers have a actual course to drive on at the back of the facility. The inspector doesnt ask you one thing other than to tell you to start the test. You are expected to know the course and what you are supposed to do for the test. The inspector sits and watches you. One major mistake and you can still pass if you make no other errors at all...virtually impossible with the way they score. You can basically have 3 minor errors and pass.

The inspectors have great fun in making you even more nervous than you need to be for the test. Nice long checks on the paper that you cant see and not a word. You wonder if it was a major or minor error...typically makes you make more mistakes. They pile you in with 2 other people taking the test (they sit in the back seat). Then you all switch seats after each one finishes. When you finish, the inspector tells you what you did wrong...in Japanese, but doesnt tell you if you pass or not. You sit in a waiting room for that pleasure.

I had a Brazilian lady in my test group that had apparently taken the test quite a few times. When the inspector started making marks on the paper as she drove, I could tell she was losing it. When she finished, the inspector started to tell her what she did wrong and the started yelling at him. Then she got out of the car and started yelling at her driving school instructor as well. Then she got back in the car and I got to test...it was quite a event.

The course is a closed circuit with a light. They have you stop at a light, switch lanes, stop at a line and do some strange reverse S-Turn. He will be closely watching your speed and to make sure you come to a complete stop. They love to see you looking (left, right, rear view, etc...), so you basically should look like a bobble-head doll for a good score.

That is just the driving part. If you are Japanese, you take a very long and hard written test (us foreigners get a easier version with about 10-12 questions).

Japanese Driving Schools

I had a laugh reading that. Having a closed circuit means predictability unlike the British test where they actually take you out on the road - I mean all over the local area so you can't pretend. If you do not know how to drive already (which I did) it will be a nightmare. I'm sure that Brazilian lady was quite entertaining. You should have recommended her to your instructor.

Japanese Driving Schools Culture Family Travel & Consumer Reviews

Yeah, the closed course is predictable, but the level of scrutiny of the Japanese Testing Inspectors cannot be matched. You can think you did it perfectly, but they will say that you did this and that little thing wrong...it is a game.

In the US, the inspectors take you out on the road for the test.