As of January 2023, the number of people from overseas living in Tokyo is about 580,000 and that’s 20% of the total people from abroad living in Japan. Those who are living in Tokyo are mainly age of 20s-30s and very young. In addition to this, the most of them are living in the 23 wards of Tokyo, commercial area. The number of foreign people who need to work with driving a car are increasing and its demand for a driver’s license is also increasing.
We summarized the driving schools available in English and other languages in Tokyo and we hope you can find the one suitable for you.
Current circumstances of driving schools available in foreign languages.
It is still a few numbers, but some of the driving schools are available in English and other languages. Some of them has official website with translations such as English, Chinese, Spanish, and Vietnamese. In addition, some has instructors who speak English or Chinese and they are available giving lectures with those languages.
English and Chinese are available for the driver’s license written test in Tokyo.
As of February 2022, English, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Portuguese, and Tagalog are corresponded with the driver’s license written test in Japan (varies by the license center). However, in Tokyo, they correspond with only in English and Chinese for now. If you would like to take the written test with your mother tongue or the other language you understand, you need to find the one from the other areas, in Japan.
【Driving schools in Tokyo available in English and other languages】
Here are the 4 driving schools in Tokyo corresponds with foreign languages. As noted above, the written test is only available in English and Chinese in Tokyo, but some of the driving schools independently give practical skills training and academy training with instructors who are fluent at foreign languages.
Shintokyo Driving School
“Shintokyo Driving school” is an accredited (by Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission) driving school located in Kodaira-city, Tokyo.
**List of licenses you can acquire at Shintokyo Driving school**
- Standard motor vehicle license (Automatic / Manual)
- Large-sized motorcycle license
- Standard motorcycle license
- Small-sized motorcycle license
You can take both practical skills training and academy training in English and Chinese. For more details, please refer to their official website.
Musashisakai Driving School
“Musashisakai Driving school” is an accredited (by Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission) driving school located in Musashino-city, Tokyo.
**List of licenses you can acquire at Musashisakai Driving school**
- Standard motor vehicle license (Automatic / Manual)
- Semi-Mid-sized motor vehicle license
- Mid-sized motor vehicle license
- Large-sized motorcycle license
- Standard motorcycle license
- Small-sized motorcycle license
They are giving practical skills training, academy training and the written test in English and the lectures of motorcycle are conducted one-on-one. For more details, please refer to their official website.
OGIKUBO Driving School
“OGIKUBO Driving School” is non-accredited driving school located in Ogikubo, Suginami-ward, Tokyo. As you might noticed, there are some differences between accredited driving school and non-accredited driving school when it comes to take learner’s permit tests and full driver’s license test, and we listed the differences below.
| Learner’s permit test | ・ Take both written and practical skills test at Fuchu Driver’s License Center. |
| Full driver’s license test | ・ 【People who has a certificate of residence in Tokyo】 Take both written and practical skills test at Fuchu Driver’s License Center.・ 【People who has a certificate of residence out of Tokyo】 It is possible to take practical skills test at Fuchu Driver’s License Center, but written test must be taken at license bureau in your resident area. |
OGIKUBO driving school’s website can switch all the pages to English and it’s very helpful. In addition, they have a course to convert foreign driver’s license to Japanese license and the practical skills test is conducted only on the premises. Please refer to the details, price, and courses on their official website as they may change seasonally.
Koyama Driving School
Koyama Driving School is accredited (by Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission) driving school group and has the ownership of 4 driving schools at Futako-Tamagawa, Seijo, Shakujii, and Akitsu, in Tokyo.
Licenses you can acquire is depending on the school and here is the list below.
| School Name | Acquirable Licenses |
| Futako-Tamagawa | ・ Standard motor vehicle license (Automatic / Manual)
・ Class 2 Standard motor vehicle license (Automatic / Manual) ・ Semi-Mid-sized motor vehicle license ・ Mid-sized motor vehicle license ・ Standard motorcycle license (Automatic / Manual) ・ Special Large-sized motor vehicle license ・ Towing License |
| Seijo | ・ Standard motor vehicle license (Automatic / Manual)
・ Class 2 Standard motor vehicle license (Automatic / Manual) |
| Shakujii | ・ Standard motor vehicle license (Automatic / Manual)
・ Class 2 Standard motor vehicle license (Automatic / Manual) ・ Semi-Mid-sized motor vehicle license ・ Mid-sized motor vehicle license ・ Standard motorcycle license (Automatic / Manual) ・ Special Large-sized motor vehicle license ・ Towing License |
| Akitsu | ・ Standard motor vehicle license (Automatic / Manual)
・ Large-sized motor vehicle license ・ Class 2 Large-sized motor vehicle license ・ Special Large-sized motor vehicle license ・ Semi-Mid-sized motor vehicle license ・ Mid-sized motor vehicle license ・ Standard motorcycle license ・ Towing License |
Koyama driving school’s website can switch all the pages to English, Chinese, and Spanish. For more details, please refer to the official websites as they may change.
There are 4 driving schools correspond with English and other languages.
In this article, we introduced some driving schools correspond with foreign languages and its circumstances in Tokyo.
For people from overseas, it must be comfortable to take lessons and tests in their mother tongue or a language familiar with. In Tokyo, there are some driving school people can choose and enroll. Even though the prices are slightly expensive, it is helpful and meaningful to understand traffic rules and learn practical skills thoroughly.
What if you were NOT able to go to a driving school corresponding to English or other language support?
Most of the people from foreign countries struggle with written test preparation in Japanese. However, what should people do with the circumstances like below…
- There is no English corresponded driving school around you.
- Fees in English corresponded training or support are too expensive.
For those people, do not worry. We would recommend you the commentary videos in English by “Driver’s Academy in Japan” to boost your learning. With “Driver’s Academy in Japan”, you can learn and prepare for driver’s license written test anywhere, anytime with your smartphone or computers.
Check them out with sample videos!!!
We hope these commentary videos would help you learn deeply.
