A while back, I had to renew my driver's license here in Japan. In the US, it
was as easy as sending in some money, and my new license was mailed to me. Here
in Japan it's more involved.
There are 3 license colors: green, blue and gold, denoted by a colored stripe
at the top (not an actual gold colored card, which would be cool.) When you
first get a license, you start with green. Then you go on to blue, and if you
don't get any tickets, you can get a gold license. The license renewal process
then depends on which color you have.
For a green license, to renew it you need to attend a lecture for two hours.
For blue, it's only one hour, and for gold, 30 minutes. I also had to have my
eyes checked, and a new photo taken. They asked for my current license before
my picture was taken, and I'll admit it hurt when they punched a big hole in
the middle of it. While you're in the lecture though, they create a new one for
you.
The two hour lecture was this: DRIVE SAFELY. We were given a quiz to see how
careful we are, plus two booklets full of information. They also showed us
statistics of how, where and when most accidents occur. At the end we watched a
video, which had to be about 15 years old, but which I found interesting. I
don't know about everyone else, but I was paying attention; I take safety very
seriously, because I've almost caused two accidents myself.
The lectures are held at license centers, and I believe the staff are police,
but I'm not 100% sure. The classrooms have rules, and one was No Mobile Phones.
Right before we started they walked around telling us: Turn your phone off or
switch it to silent mode. My phone was in my bag, and everyone quietly put
theirs away without argument, but I had a moment of annoyance.
I flashed back to my last place of work in the US. Apparently mobile phone
usage on the job was so bad, that one team meeting started off with "So, tell
us, what do you think is using your phone too much?" I had to bite my lip,
thinking what is this, junior high school??
Anyway, once the lecture was done, we all filed out of the classroom and into
a line, and were handed our new license. Congratulations! You can drive for
another 3 years.
Many people in Japan have a gold license, simply by not driving: the term is
"Paper Driver". Some statistic I read said that many people (women, especially)
are afraid of driving. Well, I don't have a long driving history so I get
nervous myself, but I think driving can be fun. Not so much back home: last
summer we got a rental. As soon as I pulled out of the lot and up to a stop
sign, someone pulled up right behind me and blared their horn.
