＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
(Reference) Original article in Japanese
・免許更新は完全予約制！予約期間・講習区分は？更新忘れ・期限切れしない方法も
Recently, my son took time off work to go to the police station to renew his driver’s license, but he was curtly refused, being told, “Currently, license renewals are by appointment only, so same-day appointments are not possible.” He was turned away at the door.
Even salaried workers aren’t exactly free all the time, so you’d think they’d at least check for same-day availability…
It’s embarrassing to admit, but neither my son nor I knew that license renewals were by appointment only. We knew that the renewal period had changed to “a total of two months, one month before and one month after the birthday prior to the license’s expiration date” (this was quite a while ago).
While digitalization is all well and good, I think they could be a little more analog and flexible.
1. Osaka Prefecture operates on an appointment-only system with no same-day appointments.
(1) How to make a reservation
Reservations can be made online via smartphone or computer, or by phone: 0570-00-5054 (Navi Dial).
However, it’s very difficult to get through on the phone, no matter how many times you call. This is likely because they accept reservations for the entire Osaka Prefecture through a single phone number.
Therefore, I recommend making an online reservation from your smartphone or computer from the start.
Please note that those without a renewal postcard or those wishing to renew early will need to make a phone reservation.
(2) Reservation Period
Once you receive your renewal postcard, you can make a reservation. Please make an online reservation promptly using your smartphone or computer.
The renewal postcard will arrive approximately 31 to 40 days before your birthday in the year of renewal.
The number of renewals for the baby boomer generation will increase in the future. Especially for seniors, it is necessary to take a “senior driver training course” and a “cognitive function test” at a driving school beforehand. Therefore, if you do not take the “senior driver training course” and “cognitive function test” and complete the renewal procedure early, your license may expire.
(3) Points to note when selecting a “training category”
The “training categories” include “Excellent,” “General,” “Violation,” and “First-time.” It is important to note that even if you do not currently have a “Gold” license, if you will become a “Gold” driver at this renewal (meaning you have no accidents or violations in the past 5 years), you will be classified as “Excellent.”
My son will become a “Gold” driver at this renewal, but since his current license is not “Gold,” he made a reservation under “General.”
However, when he went to the police station on the day of his appointment, he was told that he should have taken the excellent driver course, but his reservation category was incorrect.
Fortunately, in his case, his appointment was for the earliest time (9:30 AM), so he was able to get into the excellent driver course at 10:10 AM, and everything was fine. But it’s confusing, isn’t it?
Since the driver’s license number is entered when making an online reservation, I think the system should be upgraded to either automatically select the “excellent driver course” category, or to display a dialog box reminding the user to “change to the excellent driver course.”
2. “Senior Driver Course” and “Cognitive Function Test” for Seniors
(1) Seniors aged 70 to 74
A “Senior Driver Training Course” is required.
(2) Seniors aged 75 and over
A “Cognitive Function Test” is required.
Seniors cannot renew their driver’s license without taking a “Senior Driver Training Course” and a “Cognitive Function Test.”
A postcard notifying you of the “Senior Driver Training Course” will arrive 6 to 7 months before your license expires. Once you receive this postcard, please make a reservation for the “Senior Driver Training Course” at a driving school as soon as possible.
Some driving schools may have a waiting list of up to 5 months, so please make a reservation by phone (online reservations may be available in some areas) immediately.
The “Senior Driver Training Course” can be taken starting 6 months before your license expires.
3. “Extension Procedures” for License Renewal during the COVID-19 Pandemic
To prevent crowding, a major factor in the spread of COVID-19, driver’s license renewal procedures were carried out from March 2020, before the “first state of emergency declaration” was issued on April 7, 2020, and the “validity period was extended by 3 months” several times. During the “second state of emergency” that began on January 8, 2021, the National Police Agency had already announced on December 7, 2020, that “those whose driver’s licenses expire on or before March 31, 2021, can have their license validity extended by three months after completing the necessary procedures.” However, I was unaware of this until I researched it for this article.
It appears that it is “undecided” whether or not extensions will be applied to those whose driver’s licenses expire on or after April 1, 2021.
4. What to do if your license expires due to forgetting to renew it
Even if your driver’s license has expired, if it’s within six months, you can renew it at a driver’s license center by submitting the necessary documents, including a copy of your resident registration and a passport-sized photograph, even without unavoidable circumstances such as hospitalization.
However, if it’s between six months and one year past the expiration date, you’ll have to start over with a provisional license.
Note that while the current era name is “Reiwa,” current driver’s licenses still show the expiration date in the Heisei era, such as “Heisei 34” or “Heisei 35.” The presence of both the Heisei and Reiwa years can be confusing.
A simple conversion method is to use the last digit of the Heisei year to determine the Reiwa year.
From this license renewal onward, the expiration date will be displayed in the Heisei year (with Japanese era designation), so the number of cases where licenses expire due to forgetting to renew should decrease.