TAXI Research Japanese Class 2 ordinary driver's license

Hey everyone, welcome to TAXI Research. I'm your host Li Yang. Right now I'm standing at the entrance of the Samezu Driving License Center in Tokyo, holding my brand-new Japanese Class 2 ordinary driver's license – the commercial license that legally allows me to operate a taxi for passengers. From converting my Chinese license to a Japanese ordinary license to getting this Class 2 license today, it's been a full three and a half months of work. Today I'm going to share the entire process and all my tips with you. Whether you want to come to Japan to drive taxi for extra income, or you're just curious about the process of getting a commercial driver's license in Japan, this video is worth saving. Let me start with some basic background. I've been living in Tokyo for almost three years, and I already had 6 years of driving experience in China. When I first arrived in Japan, I successfully converted my Chinese driver's license to a Japanese Class 1 license – that's the standard private driver's license, which only allows you to drive for personal use, not to carry passengers for a fee. I already made a separate video about the whole process of converting a Chinese license, so today I'm going straight to the main topic: after getting your ordinary license, how do you get a Class 2 license, and I'll tell you all about my experience and the pitfalls to avoid. A lot of people ask me why I even bothered getting a Class 2 license. The reason is pretty straightforward. First, the taxi industry in Tokyo is really short-staffed, especially short of Chinese-speaking drivers. Since travel opened up these past few years, more and more Chinese tourists are coming to Japan, and they prefer to book drivers who can speak Chinese. Chinese drivers get more bookings and charge higher rates than regular drivers. Second, driving taxi gives you really flexible hours. I work in media, so my schedule is already irregular. If I have free time, I can drive for half a day and make more money than working a half-day office job. Even if I quit my current job in the future, I'll never be out of work with this license, so it's just an extra safety net for me. To apply for a Class 2 license, you first need to meet the basic requirements. First, you must already hold a Japanese Class 1 ordinary license – even if you just got it, that's fine. There's no extra driving experience requirement, I signed up at the driving school the same day I got my Class 1 license and was fully eligible. Second, you must be at least 21 years old – that's a hard rule, you can't apply if you're under age. Third, you need to have corrected vision of at least 0.8, no color blindness or color weakness, and normal hearing. That's something most people can meet, so if you check all three boxes, you can apply. Next up is choosing a driving school. There are quite a few driving schools in Tokyo that offer Class 2 training, but most small schools only offer classes in Japanese and aren't very friendly to foreigners. After a lot of research, I ended up choosing a commuter driving school in Edogawa Ward. Why didn't I go for a residential boot camp style school? Boot camps are definitely faster, you can graduate in two weeks, but you have to stay at the school for two full weeks straight and can't leave. I have videos to update and other things to take care of, so I couldn't take that much time off. A commuter school lets you book classes whenever you're free, which is perfect for people already living in Tokyo with other commitments. Let me warn you about a common mistake many people make: if you're applying for a Class 2 license for the first time, no matter how long you've been driving, you have to complete the required training at an approved driving school and get a graduation certificate before you can take the government exam at the National Police Agency license center. You can't just sign up for the exam directly. That's written into Japanese law, so don't try to skip the training to save money – you'll just be turned away and waste a trip. After I signed up, training officially started. The whole program is split into two parts: classroom training and practical driving training, for a total of 28 50-minute sessions. You can't skip a single session, you have to attend all of them to graduate. A lot of people think classroom training is just memorizing traffic rules all over again – that's not true at all. 90% of Class 2 classroom content is specific to commercial passenger service, traffic rules are only a small part.