Booking
You cannot get a slot — book first, papers later
The booking is the longest wait in the whole process. Papers take a few days. A slot can take months. If you do it the other way around, your papers go out of date first.
Make the booking call first. Get the papers after that. Saitama writes that a knowledge test slot is "about 3 to 4 months" away. Gifu writes "the paper check is about 2 months away, and the knowledge and driving tests about 5 months away". Booking is by phone only, online only, or not needed the first time, depending on the prefecture. In some places one booking does not carry you to the end.
The order — booking first, papers second
Many people start with the papers and run out of time. This is the order.
First of all. Some prefectures are months away. Nothing else can be fixed until the date is set
Work back from the date. Some prefectures want a fresh residence record. Get it too early and you pay for it twice
On the day. In Ishikawa the desk is open for 20 minutes a day
The Japanese translation of your license takes 5 to 10 working days on average through the JAF online service for many countries. Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Monaco and Taiwan take 2 to 3 working days. It is the slowest paper of all. Order it the day you get your booking. → Documents and the Japanese translation
Three ways to book
| Way | Where | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Phone only | Hokkaido, Aomori, Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata, Fukushima, Niigata, Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Gifu, Osaka and more | The call is in Japanese. The Osaka police write "phone service in Japanese only". The Gifu police write "please call together with a person who speaks Japanese" |
| Online only | Ibaraki, Gunma, Saitama, Aichi, Mie and more | Ibaraki stopped counter booking on 1 December 2025. Saitama needs your own email address, and you may hold only one knowledge test slot |
| No booking the first time | Shizuoka, Chiba | Shizuoka holds a briefing every Wednesday at 9:30. You just go. Be on time, or come back next week. In Chiba the paper check needs no booking, and booking starts at the knowledge test |
The Tochigi police take calls on weekdays 15:00 to 17:00 only (voice menu 5, then 2). The Osaka police take them only on set days, 15:00 to 17:00. The Tokyo side route for diplomats and Specified Skilled Worker applicants is 16:00 to 17:00. Outside those hours, nobody picks up.
How many bookings you need
One booking does not always carry you to the end.
| Prefecture | What needs a booking |
|---|---|
| Ishikawa | The intake itself. You go in the 20 minutes from 13:00 to 13:20 on your day |
| Aichi | From the paper check. After that they give you the dates |
| Mie | All three: paper check, knowledge test, driving test |
| Chiba | The paper check needs no booking. Booking starts at the knowledge test |
| Saitama | Both the paper check and the knowledge test are booking only |
Outside the no-test group you go through a paper check, then the knowledge test, then the driving test. Where each one needs its own booking, the whole thing can run over half a year. → Countries with no test
Prefectures that publish a number
Few of them do. A prefecture with no number is not a fast one.
| Prefecture | What the official page says |
|---|---|
| Saitama | "We are very busy because many people want to convert a foreign license." "A knowledge test slot is about 3 to 4 months away." (updated 11 March 2026) |
| Gifu | "The paper check is about 2 months away, and after it the knowledge and driving tests are about 5 months away." (updated 10 April 2026) |
| Tokyo | The driving test is "roughly 3 to 4 months after the booking day". The wait to get the booking is on top of that |
| Shizuoka | "The change of license can take several months." |
| Hokkaido | "It is taking several months from the booking to the check." |
| Toyama | "It is taking a lot of time to reach the day of the check." |
| Chiba | "Bookings are full for several months ahead." "The wait for the knowledge test is also long." |
| Tokushima | "We are very busy at the moment." |
| Tochigi | Booking was stopped when we looked, with a date for reopening |
Why the line is getting longer
The reason is clear. The change on 1 October 2025 cut the pass rate. People who fail come back, and they take the slots.
- The knowledge test went from 10 picture questions at 70% to 50 written questions at 90%
- The driving test added a crosswalk, and marking for signals and turning got stricter
- People who fail book again. They stand in the same line as new applicants
The Hyogo police write that "people who have taken a check before, such as a repeat of the 50 questions, book by phone". Repeat takers go down a different route. The desk for a first try and for a repeat is not always the same.
If you fail the driving test, you keep your knowledge test result. For 6 months from the day of that test, you take the driving test only. (notice, 2(3)(iii)) It works even if you move to another prefecture. Almost no prefecture page mentions it.
What each prefecture did to slow the flow
No prefecture said it had closed the door. What they did instead is cap the numbers through the booking system.
| Prefecture | Step | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Aichi | Knowledge test cut from twice a day to once a day (13:30 only), intake limited to 10:00 to 11:45 | 1 October 2025 |
| Osaka (Komyoike) | First come on the day → phone booking | 12 September 2025 |
| Osaka (Kadoma) | Counter booking started | 19 January 2026 |
| Ibaraki | Online booking only. The counter no longer takes bookings | 1 December 2025 |
| Saitama | Paper check and knowledge test both by booking only | (updated 11 March 2026) |
| Chiba | Booking only. Groups of 5 or more call 7 days ahead to set a date | — |
Aichi is the hardest cap. Twice a day down to once a day halves their capacity. Osaka takes calls for two hours on set days. That is almost as hard.
On the phone — what they ask, in Japanese
Where booking is by phone, the questions come in Japanese. If that is hard for you, ask someone who speaks Japanese to call for you. The Gifu police say it plainly: "please call together with a person who speaks Japanese".
What they usually ask
- Your name, spelled as in your passport
- Which country gave your license (and which state, for the USA)
- The date you got it, and the date it ends
- Your address in Japan (prefecture and city)
- Your status of residence and how long it runs
- Whether you speak Japanese, and whether you can bring an interpreter
- Which license you want (normal, automatic only, and so on)
Note what they tell you while you are still on the call.
- The date and the intake time
- The papers to bring
- Where to meet — which floor, which window
- Whether you need an interpreter
Calling back is hard where the line is open two hours a day.
When you cannot get a slot
- You cannot book in another prefecture. You apply where you live. An empty slot next door is of no use (→ Who can apply)
- Where a prefecture has several test centers, you may be able to change center. Tokyo has Fuchu, Samezu and Koto. Fukushima has Fukushima and Koriyama. Aichi has Hirabari and Higashi-Mikawa. Shizuoka has east, central and west. Some centers are for the no-test group only
- If booking is stopped, put the reopening date in your calendar. The Tochigi police posted theirs
- If your foreign license ends soon, say so and ask. Almost no prefecture writes how it handles this
The Aichi police write "no application by proxy" on their page. You go yourself. Bringing an interpreter and applying by proxy are two different things. The Osaka police write "one applicant per interpreter", which stops one interpreter from bringing a group.