You need to prove ownership of a parking space before you may buy a car in Japan and also submit certification of such (shakoshomeishou) to the police. They can be very expensive depending on where you live. The rental of the space varies -- from ¥3,000 to ¥20,000 a month. To get a parking space, some are found through real estate agents, others are rented directly from the owners. Your apartment may have a spot for you already.

ROAD TAX

When you buy a car, you'll have 3 main taxes to pay. One is an Acquisition Tax, another is a weight tax, and the 3rd is an annual tax every May. The first 2 you pay when you buy the car. Basically, the bigger the engine, the more you pay. The Acquisition Tax is around 5% of the price of the car. The weight tax for cars with engine sizes up to 2 litres are about ¥56,700. Over that is ¥75,600. Passenger cars with a 300 something or 33 in the upper right corner of the licence plate (including nearly all US cars) are the highest. A 50-something on the licence plate indicates a medium-size car, and the "Kei" cars with an engine of 660cc have a yellow plate and are lowest. The May annual tax for Kei cars is the lowest as well at about ¥5000, but for larger cars the tax quickly escalates to ¥34,500-¥39,500 for medium cars to ¥45,000 for 2.5 litre cars and ¥56,000 for 3 litre cars. You also need to pay consumption tax when you buy gasoline, and many gasoline stations don't post their prices.

INSURANCE

There are 2 insurance programmes; one is the mandatory insurance (kyosei hoken) which just covers the car, and the optional insurance (jibaiseki hoken) covers collateral injuries/damages you may get/cause. You can decide the extras-- theft, vandalism, disaster damage, lost wages, etc. Even if a pedestrian or cyclist breaks the law if you hit them while driving you are liable for their medical treatment. Insurance in Japan is not too expensive - depending on what you drive but liability for causing a death while driving is in excess of ¥50million, which is around 50,000million US.

The costs vary according to your age, if your spouse also drives it, how many citations you may have had, if the car has an airbag, etc. Since the customer is King in Japan, by all means find a company that has a 24 hour toll-free hotline in English you can call in case of trouble.

THE SHAKEN

The Shaken is the Mandatory Vehicle Inspection in Japan. Cars more than 3 years old have to have a mandatory maintenance check (shaken) every other year, broken or not. The costs again vary according to the size of the car, but basically you'll be paying ¥120,000-160,000 or so for a mid sized car, and more for a larger one or if there is anything the mechanic can possibly fix. Also, when the car is very old, it has an official value of ZERO and you may actually have to PAY someone to take it off your hands! After that it'll be either scrapped or sold to dealers in Asia. It is required for all cars. If you are buying a car privately find out when the shaken expires and have the price adjusted accordingly. When you buy from a dealer, new shaken is automatically factored into the cost. On a yellow plate car the shaken is usually ¥70,000 to ¥80,000 plus the cost of any repairs.

PETROL / GASOLINE

Prices can vary and may be up to ¥15 per litre. cheaper at some stations. You can usually expect to pay between ¥85 to ¥105 per litre. Self service is rare and the gas will be pumped for you.

PENALTIES

Traffic offences are essentially the same as back home: speeding, running red lights, reckless or drunk driving, failing to signal a turn, illegal parking, etc. The penalties incurred can be a fine or a certain number of points upon your licence. Gather six points and you will be suspended for 30 days.

By law the street side of a car parked must be 3.5 meters from the other side of the street, which discounts most of Japan. This means that with the exception of a few parking zones, nearly all street parking is illegal even in residential neighbourhoods. Parking offences are expensive: ¥15,000-¥18,000, and much more if your car has been towed. The police will attach a ticket to your window or a tag to the front of your car requiring you to go to your local police station to pay the fine and have it removed. It is a real hassle as the process will take over an hour at the station whilst they check every detail they can about this foreigner. Expect calls to immigration etc.

BUYING A CAR

To buy a car, you can always check the local dealers,or buy it from another individual. You can also find several magazines on people selling cars in your area. As mentioned previously, if buying privately find out how long until it needs its next shaken. If you buy from a dealer the price will have this factored into it.

Apart from car dealerships, auctions offer the best value, but have someone experienced go with you as you need a licence to attend, you cannot just walk in. Also, a magazine called Car Sensor contains thousands and thousands of used cars for sale and is available at your local convenience store.

A car export company, Rexis Auto Export, who have an ex-JET on their staff offer JETs a domestic service not available to their other customers. They will find the car you are looking for and take care of the complex registration procedures.

There are two types of car in Japan, yellow plate cars and white plate cars which you can recognise by the fact that their licence plates are yellow and white in colour respectively.

Yellow Plate Cars are known as mini cars and Kei cars and are small in size, have small engines and low power but are very cheap to run. They are very economical on petrol but not great for longer journeys and the safety factor is considerably lower than larger sized white plate cars. A yellow plate car is likely to be ripped apart in an accident of any real magnitude on an expressway so do consider the real cost of going for the cheapest option.

White Plate Cars are normal sized cars. They are bigger, faster and more powerful than the yellow plate cars but incur twice the costs in getting them on the road and running them.

CAR RENTAL