I have been driving in Japan for about three years and I have seen my fair share of people overtaking on the left side (and yes, I may or may not have done that too). Due to reasons, I am forced to get a Japanese driver's license from scratch. I've just finished up my second attempt at the honmen and failed because I hit a pole when performing the directional turn special maneuver at the driving center. The examinor mentioned that my on-the-road driving was really good and I would have passed for sure had I not fucked up at the end.
But one other situation arose during the test that I still have not been able to find a satisfactory answer for. I was driving on a 60km/h road. My lane, the left lane, was completely clear. On the right was a train of vehicles all driving under the 60 km/h speed limit. Afraid that I was going to overtake them on the left — to my knowledge a traffic violation and probably an instant fail — I slowed down, but my examiner just said: "you need to speed up".
Eventually the situation resolved itself, because before I could catch up and overtake them, the train of cars turned right and made a turn. At this point, overtaking is fine of course, so I just went about my way. However, had this continued, what is the correct play here? Do you slow down to not overtake? Do you overtake? Do you join the right lane?
My instinct says 'stay in your lane and slow down to not overtake', but if this is not the correct answer, please do let me know.
by aerox1991