I recently took both the written and driving/practical test for the Gaimen Kirikae and so I thought I'd share what it was like.
As a disclaimer, this was in Nagasaki and I passed the written test the first time but failed the driving test (more on that later.) Also, my IDP expired back in August, but I had started the process months before.
Starting back in June, I had the incorrect idea that the Japanese license process would be very similar to the USA's system – namely that walk ins were the norm and the whole thing would be wrapped up in a week or 2.
Even though I had given myself 2 months starting time, It took about 30 days before I even received my interview appointment, which ended up being 30 days AFTER that.
If you are unfamilar with the Gaimen Kirikae and are an American, the process goes as: Document submission > Interview > Written Test > Driving Test > License.
Since my Japanese skill is probably N100 level, I begged my school and supervisors to help me by calling the testing center on my behalf to figure out what was required. Sadly, none of them did. But I eventually found someone that helped.
DOCUMENT SUBMISSION
What I needed was: Copy of state license, copy of its translation, copy of passport, copy of IDP, copy of residence card, copy of residence certificate, photos of my face, documents proving that I had lived in the USA 3 months after getting my license and an additional document handwritten by me explaining which license I wanted to test for, if I wore glasses, my phone number and email address, and essentially anything I wanted them to know. DANG! That's alot of papers.
The testing center in Nagasaki surprisingly does NOT allow you to drop off the documents, instead they only accept it by mail. So, I ponied up 500 yen for the mail and waited.
and waited… and waited…. and waited…
Eventually 2 weeks had gone by. 2 weeks for a place that's 3 or 4 hours away? So, I had someone give them a call just to make sure they had received the documents. As it turns out, they rejected my "3 months living in the usa" documents, which were my college transcripts, due to my name not being on the first page. Welp, ok. Would of liked a call back. So I pulled out another 500 yen and remailed it, this time with my name… and waited.
Another week went by and I said, "ok, we are not doing this again." At this point my license was close to expiring and I hadn't even gotten through the first stage. Turns out, my documents were again rejected due to "my name not being on every page" even though thats how my university has it set.
The testing person on the line was understanding and said, "how about you bring your diploma with you when arrive for your interview… 30 days from now"
INTERVIEW
At this moment, my IDP license had expired and I was unable to drive. My current placement has me driving to multiple schools so I thought that there would be some sympathy from my main school. I was wrong.
I had seen that other ALTs near me had their schools set up their appointments, some had received paid time off from their schools in order to take the drivers test and even a few schools were paying for the fees. Mine? ohhhhhhh no.
My vice principal informed me that this was a "personal issue" and as such, I was responsible for everything. This process would have 0 business trips and no help. Furthermore, my other schools had been contacted and told to keep me on the schedule as per the norm and I would be taking the bus. I believe I was told that I would be responsible for the bus fees as well, I'm waiting on my next paycheck to see if that really is the case.
Ok. So, the interview. Well, my interview time was set for early in the morning which made taking the bus impossible as they wouldn't run early enough. Also, the testing center told the school that someone who spoke Japanese needed to be with me. The school tried to weasel its way out of helping me by trying to get me to find another person (someone from city hall, another alt, hire someone) but I literally didn't have anyone else. So, the school relented and allowed me to take my supervisor with a stipulation. I had to pay them 4000 yen and the supervisor would be given the day off as a "business trip." Wow. My supervisor ended up not even taking me home and I had to take an hour and half bus ride.
At the testing center my supervisor and I were placed in a small room with an instructor. The very nice instructor relayed various questions to my supervisor while checking through my documents. The questions were all things that I had forgotten a decade ago. Some examples: "How long was your driver's test?" "Did you do a 3-point turn?" "What kind of questions were on your written test?" "How many questions was it" "Did you reverse park on it?"
I assumed these questions paired with the very long waiting period meant everyone's gaimen kirikae was uniquely tailored. Of course, that's not the case.
After the questions I was told that I had passed (I guess you can fail?) and that my tests would both on the same day, and it would be scheduled…. 2 months later…. OH MY.
3 months with no license.
To add some salt on the wound this would be after the Oct.1st deadline in which all test questions would get buffed to 50, the passing score was 90% and the driven test would be more difficult.
The instructor ended the interview with an omen, essentially saying, "Ive seen the changes and nobody is gonna pass"
WRITTEN TEST
Fast forward to Oct. 16th, 1 day before my tests. My tests were once again scheduled for early in the morning on Oct.17th and as such I again wouldnt be able to take the bus (they didnt run early enough)
I had begged and pleaded over the last 2 months that someone at the school take me, but unlike the last time with the 4,000 yen fee – The school wasnt budging.
What I was told to do instead was book a hotel for the 16th and stay the night near the testing center and come back after on the night of the 17th. That's exactly what I did. Ended up getting one for 7800 yen and spending a combined 6000 yen on busses. Not to include another 6000+ in exam fees.
On the morning of the 17th, I checked out of the hotel and walked to the testing center an hour early. What I had expected was a sea of foreign faces. Afterall, it had been 3 months and about 5 months of work. There must be a ton of people here! What I saw instead was 2. Only 2 other foreigners. 1 Chinese, and 1 from Nepal.
I walked up to the counter and presented my documents – and this is where the first issue arrived. I had no one with me to translate. Repeated questions after repeated question made the office worker's blood boil. I tried using my phone to help translate but this only irritated the officers working behind the counter further. Nothing was in English. Not a sign, not a document. Even the documents I had to fill out for my gaimen kirikae were not in English. Thankfully the person from Nepal was EXTREMLELY nice and helped me. If it wasn't for him I would have been screwed.
Next was an eye exam which again irritated the officer as my japanese was not very good. Thats when the second problem arose.
My residency certificate.
For whatever reason, my city does not include your "my number" on your residency paper and this confused the heck out of everyone in the testing center. Officers were calling my city. Officers were having a meeting. Papers were being tossed in the air, books were being opened. The solution? An officer would drive me to the Nagasaki city hall to get a residency paper from them as that one would have my number on it.
That meant, more waiting and more fees. I assumed this would have been caught in the multi-month processing.
When I returned back to the testing center the other 2 foreigners had finished their written test. The nice guy from Nepal was waiting alone. As it turned out the man from China had failed and stormed out. I was then escorted into a small room with a timer and was given a black binder containing the questions, an easer, an answer sheet and an old school pencil with the easer removed.
Before the test could start the officer had to watch and make sure, I removed everything from my pockets and locked it up in a suitcase behind me and then, BEGIN.
I flipped open the binder and was happy that a majority of the questions were pretty common sense. I'd say out of 50 about 30 anyone could guess.
questions like: "should you drive after drinking?" "does your child have to be in a car seat?" "if you give your keys to a drunk man are you responsible for what he does?"
another 15 questions were things you needed to study prior. Obscure Japanese signs, motorcycle-based questions, questions about speed limits that aren't posted. one in particular was "If you are on a motorcycle and want to stop, you should use the front break hardly ever"
The last 5 somewhere in the test are where it gets tricky. Like I said earlier, this new test requires a 90% to pass. On a 50 question test you can only miss 5 questions.
I've heard others say these questions are tricky because the translations are so bad, but I'd say its because they are missing KEY CONTEXT.
One question I spent 10 mins on was, "True or false: You are driving a car down a road and something falls off your car and lands on the road. You shouldn't pick it up off the street because its dangerous.
Like, how busy is this street? is this highway or just infront of my house? What's the alternative? Just leave it there? Should I say True as if you shouldn't immediately just run out and get it, or should I say false because true means just leave it there and continue driving.
BEEEEEEEEP. Test time over.
After a few stressful minuets I was told I had passed with 46 questions correct. Yay! As it turned out, that was the same as the Nepal foreigner.
At this time, it was about 12:00 and we (the man from Nepal and I) were instructed to meet at a certain location at 1:30 for our driving tests. Until then we could walk the outside course and memorize our path. We were then given, for the first time, which course path we had to take.
DRIVING TEST
I hear that many centers give you the course track information way before you take it so you can memorize it. At ours, the gaimen kirikae tracts are so rarely used and so different from the standard Japanese tests that they arent posted anywhere. The first time you see them is 1 hour and a half from when you take the test.
After walking for an hour and some change and trying our best to memorize we arrived at the start line.
This whole process I have been wondering why in the world everyone is having to wait so long just to get their foot into the door. There was essentially nobody taking the gaimen written test, so I assumed that there must be alot of foreigners inside the starting area – people who passed the written test but failed the driven. To my dismay, there was 0. 0 other foreigners.
There was however about 13 other Japanese test takers who all looked in various stages of nervousness, as we did. I was surprised by the ages. In the US if you go take your driving test it will mostly be you surrounded by fresh permit 16-year-olds. Here, it was mostly people in their 20's. Maybe 1 or 2 in their 30's, and then someone who looked in his 60's
Welp, the Nepal man was selected first. With only two of us I assumed they would let me ride in the back so I could get a sense of the experience (as many centers do) but nope. Instead, a Japanese passenger was placed in the back.
I watched as my newly found friend did all the obstacles without any issue. The crank? easy. The S curve? easy. When he arrived back, he stepped out of the car into the starting room and said to me, "yep. I failed" and showed me his slip from the instructor.
Sure enough, he failed. Why? How? Well, according to the instructor, he went to slow. Failing a test because you were too safe is new to me.
That did not give me confidence. This guy had been taking lessons, and I hadn't driven in over 3 months.
As time went on more and more people took the test and each one exited looking sad. To my knowledge not one person passed in our group.
Eventually, I was the last person. The instructor didnt seem to notice me and infact started ending her day; locking up the car and walking away!
WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! I exclaimed.
The instructor looked back at me and noticed I was still in the start room with my exam paper in hand.
Her: "Wait… are you taking the test today?"
"Yes, I have the paper!"
Her: "No… that cant be right… my documents say only 1 gaimen kirikae today"
"My paper says here, Oct. 17th"
*she looks at it*
Her: "huh, let me go talk to my superiors about this, wait here."
So, I waited some more until she came back apologizing that I had been forgotten and that she was ready for my test. I guess I won't be able to watch someone else first.
So, I hop into the driver's seat with the knowledge that the last guy had failed due to going too slow. This time, I'm going faster.
I do all my checks inside and out and take off.
Railroad? easy. Slope test? no problem. S curve? Cake. Crank? My tire rubbed. Oops.
We arrive back at the start point and I'm given my slip. FAILED.
Why? How? The Crank? Nope. Because I was going too fast.
Yup. I failed for the exact opposite reason as the first guy. I went too fast. The instructor pointed out that the tire rub was only minus 10 points. It was the driving too fast that killed me ( I think either instant fail or minus 20+ points.) As Ive seen elsewhere on reddit if the instructor sways in their seat while taking a corner, that's too fast – fail.
Thankfully now that the written test is out of the way I can take only the driven section. My next attempt is scheduled for next week which of course requires the whole bus/timeoff/possible hotel nonsense. Recently before writing this my vice principal approached me and told me that I've been taking off too much nenkyu for this.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk. Very sorry, this post is honestly like 70% rant and 30% information.
I really don't understand why the waiting period is so long, especially when there were only 2 foreigners. Even including Japanese testers it was 15 or less. A crazy tidbit is our center only does the driven tests between 1:00 and 3:00. 2 hours a day for probably thousands of people is crazy.
Why do prefectures only build like one testing center for millions of citizens?
by kparsons7