Digitizing translations of driver’s licenses should make it easier for travelers with Taiwanese licenses to drive in Japan, and help them save time and money on translated documents, the Directorate-General of Highways said yesterday.
The number of travelers from Taiwan to Japan keeps growing and visitors increasingly choose to drive during their trips, Motor Vehicles Division head Lin I-sheng (林義勝) said
Each year, more than 200,000 applications are submitted for Japanese translations of driver’s licenses, Lin said.
When travelers drive in Japan, they need to carry both their Taiwanese driver’s license and a Japanese translation issued by their municipality’s motor vehicles office, as Japan does not recognize Taiwanese-issued International Driver’s Permits, Lin said.
Translation of licenses costs NT$100 per copy, and a digitized process could save time, as well as the cost of paperwork, he said.
The highways authority has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to negotiate with Japanese authorities and hopes that new rules could take effect next year, Lin added.
About 4.6 million Taiwanese traveled to Japan last year and the number totaled 4.1 million in the first 10 months of this year, Tourism Bureau data showed.
Since September 2007, Taiwanese and Japanese driver’s license holders have been allowed to drive in the other country with their original license and a translated copy, the authority said.
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