Practice questions for Japan's license conversion written test
The written test for converting a foreign driver's license in Japan (外免切替) is a set of true/false questions on Japanese road-traffic law. This site lets you practice the six topics the test leans on most — five questions each, every one with an explanation that names its basis in law.
Most people who fail do not fail on the Japanese. They fail on the details that are specific to Japan: the duty to come to a full stop at an unsignalised pedestrian crossing, who has priority where two roads of different widths meet, the exact distances that make parking illegal. The items worth drilling are precisely the ones your home country handles differently.
Start with a topic below. The questions stick better if you commit to an answer before you open the explanation.
Practice by topic
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Signs & Markings
Signs and markings are the largest single topic on the license-conversion written test. You need to read meaning from shape and colour across the four sign families — regulatory, instruction, warning and guide — plus the markings painted on the road surface.
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Traffic Signals
Signal questions concentrate on three things: what a yellow light actually requires of you, how flashing signals differ from steady ones, and what an arrow signal permits.
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Pedestrian Protection
Pedestrian protection carries more weight than almost any other topic, both on the test and in real enforcement. The core duties are stopping at an unsignalised crossing when somebody is crossing or clearly about to, the ban on overtaking or passing within 30 metres before a crossing, and slowing to a safe speed and leaving a safe gap when you pass near pedestrians.
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Intersections & Right-of-Way
Intersection questions are right-of-way questions. Where there is no signal and no sign, the vehicle coming from your left has priority. Where the two roads are obviously different widths, the wider road has priority. Where a priority-road sign is posted, the sign settles it.
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Speed & Distance
Speed questions start from a principle rather than a number: a maximum speed binds you whether or not a sign is posted, and an empty road never raises it. What the statutory limit actually is depends on the type of road you are on.
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Parking & Stopping
Parking and stopping starts with the legal difference between the two. Parking (駐車) means leaving the vehicle in a state where you cannot drive it away immediately; stopping (停車) is anything shorter than that.