Well it has all been processed and I have handed over my Japanese drivers license to the authorities now. For those of you that dont know the point system here in Japan I have a very good understanding of it now. You lose your license when you reach 15 points. 20-30kph over gets you three points. However 70 kph over gets you 12 points. So with only two tickets in 3 monts I hit the magic number right on the button. 15 points. So for the 70 over ticket I had to pay 100,000 yen(a little less than 1,000 dollars) and for the 27kph over ticket I had to pay 18,000 yen (just short of 180 dollars)

Now in order to get my license back they say within the next year i have to pay 33,000 yen and attend a 2 day drivers training session at my local police station.

When all is said and done i will have paid about 150,000 yen.

You may suspect I have learned not to speed... Ehhhh thats no fun I just learned that it is better to get pulled over for no front plate and get a fix it ticket instead of getting pulled over or flashed by a radar camera for speeding.

Think what you want about how irresponsible or whatever you think I am, but atleast now those of you who are also dumbasses like myself will have a little bit better of an idea of the ticket system in Japan.

 

Hinge front plate?

 

yeh I have one now but they no longer sell them or make them because obviously they are illegal. The one I have on the car now blows back out of site at over 70 kilometers per hour and is in fairly plain site under 60 kph. But it is a little to late for that mod. It wont be blowing back for awhile now that I have the car just sitting in the driveway.

 

make a custom one... how hard could be?

and honestly.. you got it lucky.. here in the states... if your caught going fast and you have a sporty car they call it racing.. and when you are caught racing here.. they automaticly take(impound) your car and it will belong to the government... and you loose your liscence.. so atleast you have your car. And if you havent finished paying your car... they still take it and you still have to pay your monthly payments.... so..... YOUR LUCKY!

 

Cant you spray hair spray onto the number plate and when a photo is taken of the plate, the numbers dont show due to a counter flash. They were having trouble with this in Melbourne, Australia on the tolls.

Thats pretty bad luck mate, still those laws sound easier than Oz laws, whereby if you exceed 35km over its a loss of license.

 

I read of another guy who recently got done for 'drifting' (not sure of the official fine terminology - but that's what it was for): 500,000yen.

 

ouch! im sorry to hear about that Circuit Theory
but now i'll keep that in my head when i move back to japan
but the 70 kph over and you get 12points thing is crazy

 

Well looks like any of you guys coming out here that want to take a blast at a drift circuit or grip my have a chance to use my car hehehe. You will have to drive the two of us there and once at the track we can switch off using the car! Otherwise I am stuck with having to drive it illegally to the tracks.

359 days to go

 

They only impound vehicles if there's no one else to drive it after they arrest you, if they arrest you. Vehicles can't just be left on the side of the road which is why the impound happens. There's nothing that says if a driver is "racing" the vehicle he/she is operating has to be impounded, especially if they are not the owner and the owner is in the vehicle and not driving. Then the driver gets to see a cell over night or until bond is posted and the owner can drive home.

 

just drive like a local japanese driver that's over 50 years old and the jp's will never bother you :-)

 

The cops have never imponded any of our cars over here in southeastern part of Washington State...just tell us to get the hell outta town or maybe a few tickets....i have paid about $4,900 in speeding and reckless driving and racign tickets so far

 

Wow that really sucks dude, sorry to hear that, your money should go to you being able to go faster, not slower. I had a near cop exepereance, i was flying down to road 10MPH over when I saw a Texas State trooper in a speed trap. Now for those of you not in Texas the State Troopers don't really like people, so if if they can make life unhappy for someone they will. So while I was driving by him thinking how much this 1 will cost me, he looks at me and makes a "slow down boi" hand motion, and lets me drive on by. *pant pant pant*

 

bummer. I never got a speeding ticket there. Where were you getting nailed?

Cameras, ****... I can still tell you were most of them are hehe Cops dont like it if you speed and when you see them you dont slow down, they get pissed. So slow down, or haulass but dont just keep cruising haha

 

Heh...yeah. The only ticket I got was from driving in the bus lane. I used to fly through some of the open streches and highways all the time. Course, this was 12 years ago so I dunno how things have changed since...

 

They still sell them at our local Autobacs.

On a side note, I got pulled over doing 237 in a 100 the day I bought my R32 GTR and was driving back from Tokyo to Misawa. The cops just yelled at me, didn't even ask for my license, and then told me "uhhhhhh........................100............... ....limito" and then they got back in their white unmarked toyota Crown and drove off.
I swear to god this is a true story.

 

Well seems like everyone has a story of getting away with it. Guess i was just really unlucky! Well it has been just over a month now with no license and it F`en sucks!
Glad to hear all you guys didnt have to go through this.

 

you had "Y" plates right?

 

Yes, thank god

 

Hahaha I can believe that! I was in my friend's FD when something similar happened. One time I got pulled over doing 120 in a 90 zone in my rental March but I played the dumb/apologetic gaijin card and they let me go.

It's so funny they got that tiny pop up hole on the roof of their Toyota!

 

Why don't you just use your international driver's license (hope you got one just in case)?

I'd never show them my Japanese license!

 

they busted that myth on Myth busters

try this...disappearing license plate device
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS1eW3QlaQM

 

*

 

Not to rub salt in your wound but;

Got pulled over in the US last week 135mph in a 70mph, and the very nice officer let me go...I did get a flat tire form the shoulder which cost me $165, so I got little taste.

 

Ive had issues with the cops in Japan, its not just you. I got taken into the police station and wasnt allowed to drive anywhere because i left my license at home.

 

Canyon Runner- I do have and have had an international drivers license ever since I came here and I have renewed them to make sure they were up to date and not expired.

However I also found this out the hard way. I had some fool in a Toyota 4runner(hilux) Put his car in park at a red light and then when it turned green he then put it in reverse and smashed the hood of my K-car. I was not at fault and had a spare hood available but it was a company car so they insisted on calling the police. Cops came, took my international license and my gaijin card and then informed me that even though the international license does not expire for one year from the issue date. It is only valid for the first three months you are in that country. blah blah blah... i went to the polices station a handful of times and was told I probably would not be allowed to get a Japanese license for awhile since I was basically operating a vehicle with no or an expired license. So I immediately went and got my Japanese license and I never heard anything else from the police regarding the previous incerident after that.

So if any of you do have international licenses and you have lived in japan for more than 3 months you are best off going to get your Japanese license unless you are here for armed forces services. If you do have to show you International license you will be best off only showing it and your foriegn Drivers license and not a gaijin card or a passport.