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| Photo for illustration (Source: VNA) |
This aims to reduce difficulties for foreigners because the driving license test was previously only conducted in Japanese.
Previously, the regular Class 1 driving test was available in English, but the Class 2 driving license test was only offered in Japanese, that causes difficulties for foreigners in Japan.
Japan’s Aichi Police Department has organized the Class 2 test in English since this week. The Fukuoka Police Department has held the tests in Vietnamese, English, Chinese and Nepali from the end of March.
About 50% of applicants taking the Class 2 driving license test pass. According to the National Police Agency, among holders of class 2 licenses for regular and large vehicles, there were 6,689 foreign nationals - less than 1% - at the end of 2023.
The taxi and bus industry as well as the logistics industry of Japan are facing a serious shortage of drivers. The overall shortage is estimated to reach approximately 67,000 and 22,000 taxi and bus drivers respectively by 2029. To address the problem, the National Police Agency has translated sample questions for the class 2 driving license test into 20 languages and distributed to all police stations to enable more foreigners to take the exam.
The Japanese government has announced a plan to accept up to 24,500 foreign drivers under a skilled worker visa program from 2024 to 2028.
According to data announced by the Japanese Ministry of Labor on January 26, 2024, the number of foreign workers in the country in October 2023 was nearly 2.05 million. In terms of nationality, the Vietnamese labor group has 518,364 people, accounting for 25.3%. Followed by China (397,918 people) and the Philippines (226,846 people).
According to residential status, the number of visas issued to professional individuals increased the most, 24.2%, up to 595,904 people. In this group, the number of people classified as "specified skilled workers" increased sharply by 75.2%, to 138,518 people, including nearly 69,500 Vietnamese and nearly 25,600 Filipinos./.