Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Japan is planning to clamp down on foreign tourists – mainly Chinese – obtaining a Japanese driving license while visiting as a tourist and using hotel addresses as their residence in Japan, according to a Fuji News Network report.

Japanese driving licenses are often used as a form of identification by establishments in Japan and to confirm people’s addresses.

Ruling party politician and former Minister for Digital Transformation KONO Taro posted a message on social media stating, “License switching will no longer be permitted.”

In August 2023, a Chinese tourist was involved in an accident while driving a rental car in Hokkaido, and the number of car accidents involving Chinese nationals, including those residents in Japan, has been increasing year by year. 

Kono said the National Police Agency has made it clear that Chinese people without a resident’s card in Japan will no longer be allowed to come to Japan and switch their Chinese driver’s license to a Japanese license. 

In response to Kono’s post, some Chinese tourists have suggested that targeting Chinese is discrimination.

FNN reported that most of the people in the queue at a driver’s license testing center in Tokyo were Chinese, who can switch to a Japanese license just by taking a theory and practical test. 

According to the National Police Agency, the number of foreigners who obtained a license by switching from a foreign driver’s license was 56,022 in 2023, a 2.2-fold increase from 25,316 in 2014.