Documents for License Conversion

Most license conversion (外免切替, gaimen kirikae) horror stories aren't about the driving test or the written quiz — they're about paperwork. A missing 住民票 (juminhyo, residence certificate), a passport stamp that doesn't add up to three months, or an expired license that should have been renewed months ago. Since the full conversion guide covers the process end to end, this piece zooms in on the documents themselves: what to bring, why each one exists, and where applicants most often get sent home to try again.

The full document checklist

Bring all of the following to your appointment at the 運転免許センター (driver's license center). This applies whether or not your country is on the list for reduced testing — being exempt from the practical or written test does not reduce what you need to bring.

1. Your foreign driver's license (both sides), currently valid — see the expired-license section below if yours has lapsed.
2. An official Japanese translation of that license, from JAF (Japan Automobile Federation) or from your country's embassy or consulate in Japan. A translation you arranged yourself, even a certified one from a translation company, is generally not accepted — it has to come from one of these two sources.
3. Your passport(s) covering the relevant period, with all non-blank pages presented. If the three-month period (explained below) spans an expired passport, bring the old one too.
4. 住民票 (juminhyo), issued within the last six months, showing your registered address in Japan. This is mandatory.
5. Your 在留カード (zairyu card, residence card).
6. An ID photo, 3.0 × 2.4 cm, taken within the last six months.
7. The application form and aptitude (eyesight, hearing) declaration, which you fill out at the center itself.

Requirements shift over time and differ slightly by prefecture, so treat this as a strong baseline, not gospel — confirm the current list with your prefecture's center before you go.

The JAF translation: cost, timing, and the embassy alternative

For most nationalities, the standard route is a JAF translation of your foreign license. As of July 2026 it costs ¥6,600. You can order it in person at a JAF office, by mail, or in some cases online depending on your license's issuing country. In-person is fastest if you have a JAF office nearby; mail applications take noticeably longer, so if you're working toward a specific appointment date, start the translation early rather than assuming you can get it the week before.

If JAF doesn't handle your license's issuing country or language, the alternative is a translation from your country's embassy or consulate in Japan. Check with your embassy directly for their process and turnaround, since it varies by mission. Either route produces the same result: an accepted official translation to pair with your original license at the counter.

The three-month rule and why your passport matters

Japan requires that you stayed in the country that issued your license for a total of three months (90 days) or more after the license was issued, before you left. This is where your passport comes in: the center checks your entry and exit stamps to verify the timeline, which is why you need every non-blank page, and why older passports matter if the relevant dates fall outside your current one.

If you plan to drive in Japan before you've sorted out conversion — say, while you're still gathering documents or waiting on a JAF translation by mail — an International Driving Permit can cover you temporarily; see the IDP for driving before you convert for how that works and its limits.

The mandatory 住民票 and the tourist cutoff

A juminhyo (住民票), issued within the past six months, is a mandatory part of the checklist. This single requirement is also why tourists can no longer apply for conversion at all: a juminhyo can only be issued to someone registered as a resident at a Japanese municipal office, so without residency status there's nothing to submit. If you're weighing whether conversion is even open to you given your visa or residency situation, the path router can help you figure out which route applies before you start collecting documents.

Expired licenses and name changes

If your foreign license has already expired, conversion gets substantially harder. Some centers will ask for additional proof that the license was valid up to a certain point, and in many cases an expired license simply cannot be converted — you'd be pushed toward learning to drive in Japan from scratch instead, tests and all. If you know you want to convert, the practical move is to renew your foreign license well before it lapses, not after.

Separately, if your name has changed since the license was issued — through marriage or otherwise — bring documentation that links your old and new names (such as a marriage certificate), since the name on your license, passport, and residence documents all need to trace back to the same person in the eyes of the reviewing officer.

Get it right the first time

Busy metro centers, Tokyo's especially, screen documents by appointment, and slots book up weeks in advance. If you show up with one document missing or one that's technically too old — a juminhyo issued seven months ago, for instance — the usual outcome isn't a quick fix on the spot; it's a rebooking that can cost you another few weeks of waiting. Go through the checklist above line by line before your appointment, double-check issue dates, and if anything about your situation is unusual (an expired license, a tight three-month timeline, a name change), sort out what extra proof you might need in advance rather than finding out at the counter.

This article is informational, not legal advice, and procedures vary by prefecture and change over time. The official 運転免許センター for your prefecture is the authority that governs your application — confirm current requirements with them before you go. For more on the process itself, see the full conversion guide, and if you have a specific question not covered here, check the FAQ.