To help alleviate a nationwide driver shortage, the National Police Agency will allow the class 2 license test to drive taxis, buses and other vehicles that transport passengers to be offered in other languages.

The class 2 test is currently only available in Japanese, making it difficult for foreigners to pass.

Industry groups have requested that the test be made available in multiple languages.

The NPA will soon distribute sample questions translated into 20 languages to each metropolitan and prefectural police department.

“Having more foreign taxi drivers will help out foreign tourists who don’t understand Japanese,” said French national Ribot Yannick, 33, who is a taxi driver.

Nobuyuki Takahashi, a professor in public administration at Kokugakuin University who specializes in transportation policies, said the content of the driving exam will not change even if it is administered in other languages.

“Thus, safety can be guaranteed,” he said.

However, “There is a possibility that problems may arise due to a lack of communication skills and knowledge of the geography,” he added. “Customers will need to change their attitudes toward the service.”

HELPING FOREIGNERS PASS

Some taxi companies are promoting hiring and training foreign drivers ahead of the other languages being introduced for the test.

As of December, Tokyo-based tax company Hinomaru Kotsu Co. had hired about 2,100 drivers, including foreign nationals representing 26 countries and regions.

With the Tokyo Olympics on the horizon, the company had anticipated more inbound tourism and so began focusing on hiring foreign nationals in 2017. Hinomaru created an English-language recruiting website to help.

About 70 percent of the people the company hires as drivers are inexperienced. Thus, the company provides training to help the employees, including Japanese nationals, obtain a class 2 driver’s license after they start working at the company.

During the training, the instructors support the students in studying for the license exam while paying them 10,000 yen ($70) per day.

While about 80 percent of Japanese pass the licensing exam in one try after less than two months of training, many foreigners must take the exam multiple times before passing.

Nevertheless, the company does not impose a time limit on the training period, vowing to support them until they pass.

Italian national Massimo Bellini, 44, and Yannick debuted as taxi drivers for Hinomaru in 2021.

Bellini said he had no trouble speaking Japanese, but he had problems memorizing the kanji.

He looked back on studying for the exam as being “really tough.”

“I’m still not very good with kanji, but I’m glad that I’m learning a little bit more each time I take customers to a new place,” he said.

MAKING IT MORE ACCESSIBLE

Each prefectural police department prepares questions for the driver’s license examination, according to the NPA.

In 2009, the NPA created English examples for the class 1 test, which is required to drive a car, and distributed them to each police department. Other languages were gradually added, with Ukrainian offered last year.

The test is now already available in 20 languages.

In addition to questions on speed limits and other traffic rules, which are also included in the class 1 license, the class 2 exam includes questions related to operating passenger vehicles, such as ensuring passengers’ safety.

Some foreigners who have good driving skills or other skills fail the class 2 test because they have difficulty reading and comprehending the questions in Japanese.

As of the end of 2022, there were 880,536 people in Japan with a class 2 license for regular vehicles and a class 2 license for large motor vehicles. Of these, 5,189 were foreign nationals, or less than 1 percent of the total.

The NPA will prepare sample questions for the class 2 license in the same 20 languages as the class 1 license, then distribute them to each prefectural police department by the end of this fiscal year.

The 20 languages include English and Chinese, as well as languages from various regions, particularly in Asia.

Each police department will create foreign language questions according to the residential status of foreigners in their jurisdiction.

The NPA is also considering increasing the maximum hours of technical training per day to shorten the training period required to obtain a class 2 license.

It plans to study changes in fatigue levels and other factors associated with an increase in the maximum hours, with the aim of introducing the system in the next fiscal year.

The transport ministry is also considering adding passenger transportation businesses and cargo haulers by automobiles to the “specified skills” category, a status of residence for foreign workers.

DRIVERS ACTIVELY SOUGHT

Opening the door for foreign-language examinations for the class 2 license is good news for the transportation and shipping industry.

There were 250,334 taxi drivers in fiscal 2021, down about 65 percent from the 385,021 a decade earlier, according to the transport ministry.

The decline was also spurred by a string of older drivers leaving the workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A representative of the Japan Federation of Hire-Taxi Associations said they are “welcoming anyone who is willing to work for us.”

Having foreign drivers is attractive, but the class 2 license test remains a “barrier for them,” the representative said.

In November, the Chiba prefectural police arrested a 31-year-old Indonesian national on suspicion of obstructing business by deception for cheating on the written test for a class 2 license for operating a large motor vehicle.

The man, a company employee, stated he was fluent in conversational Japanese and had obtained a tour guide certification, but that he cheated because he could not understand the kanji on the writing test, according to investigators.

 (This article was compiled from stories written by Daichi Itakura, Kaede Sano, Yunisu Mahar and Hiroshi Nakano.)