Someone told me that in Japan you can only own a car for 5 years???

Question

Does anyone know if this is true or not? Please only respond if you know, or have some reliable source you heard it from


thanks

Answer 1

Someone has fed you a line of bull... If you also hear a rumor that in Japan, they have to replace the engines after a certain amount of miles/kilometers, that is bull also...

About the inspection/insurance, you have to carry liability as well as insurance for the vehicle itself. The inspection is good for about two years and I have gone through the process myself a few times. They basically check safety items, window tint and make sure you haven't modified your car illegally (racing parts etc...) and the cost was around $100 per vehicle. Insurance is similar to the United States, age and type of vehicle being the determining factors of the cost. Oh, cost for the inspection was only like $100 from what I remember.

There is one more annual fee that I didn't see anyone mention though, the annual road tax which is based on your vehicle's engine size- for the small "K" cars with yellow license plates it was only like $20, for the average medium size engine up to 2.5 liters it was like $75, and for the larger engines like the one in my 300zx it was $250 or something over $200 from what I remember.

I lived in Japan for 7 years and owned a Honda Civic, Concerto, BMW 3 series, Nissan Primera (Infinity G something in the US), Fairlady Z 300zx and Skyline R32. Funny thing was that my Skyline was the fastest and most powerful car but the insurance was the same as the Civic for some strange reason.

Answer 2

Japanese people always seem to be updating their cars. I would comment and say 'wow, you got a new car' and they would humbly say 'what? this old thing, this is old" and I would ask how old and it would have been made about 2 years ago. To them this is old. Once it meets a certain milage its harder to sell, and most often they send them overseas to Australia New Zealand, the States etc. I have this information from when I was living in Japan and I asked the same question. I have friends in the car manafacture business. (my reliable sources).
There is no 'rule' that you must sell you car after a certain time period, yet most people do buy a new car after a couple of years. There are not many 'old bombs' in Japan and very very rarely you will see a car dumped on the side of the road. (although I did see a few snowed out bombs on the side of the road - Hokkaido)

Answer 3

TOTALLY WRONG!!!

I have own my cars for close to ten years now. The only thing is that you have a mandatory car inspection every two years. That costs anywhere from 30,000 yen to 120,000 yen depending on the make and size of your car. It is one of the more popular forms of government sponsored extortion here in Japan. (NHK fees being the other popular one.)

I have never heard that you can only own a car for 5 years. What a joke. If you buy a car brand new, the inspection doesn't come until the 3rd year, then every 2nd year after that. Also, Cars really start to devalue after 5 years, so you keep it till it dies, or you sell/trade it around the 5 year mark.

Answer 4

I was told the same thing many years ago. What they mean is that after 3 years, a car is subject to a "Shaken" or annual required maintenance check which costs 120,000 yen to 160,000 yen or roughly $1,000 to $1,500 per year.

http://www.jetsetjapan.com/infozone-trans-auto.shtml

This is the best I have been able to find.

Good luck

Answer 5

What is more likely true is that people don't drive cars that are hat old because they want to show off.