Sept 3, 2026 — National Police Agency report proposes adding a "direction change" maneuver and a "failure to check safety" penalty (start date TBD)
On September 3, 2026 Japan's National Police Agency (NPA) published the report of an expert panel reviewing the driving skills test (運転技能検査). Introduced by the 2020 revision of the Road Traffic Act and in force since May 13, 2022, the test applies to drivers aged 75 or over who have committed certain violations — such as running a red light, driving in the wrong lane, or failing to stop at a railway crossing — during a set period before license renewal. Four years in, the NPA tracked people who had passed and found their accident rate per 100,000 people was more than double that of drivers aged 75+ who were not subject to the test and instead took the on-road guidance of the elderly driver course. In other words, drivers whose skills had declined were still passing. The report sets out three directions: (1) add a "direction change" maneuver, which forces the driver to divide attention to the rear and sides while operating the accelerator and brake, exposing pedal misapplication; (2) add "failure to check safety" as a deduction item; (3) raise the points deducted for "failure to stop (major)" — entering an intersection without ever stopping. Until now the test covered five tasks — stopping, driving at a designated speed, right/left turns, passing signals, and driving over a step — with no item evaluating safety checks themselves. The NPA says it will now take the necessary steps, including amending the Road Traffic Act Enforcement Regulations. No start date has been announced.
The skills test applies to every license holder aged 75+ in Japan regardless of nationality, including licenses obtained by converting a foreign license (gaimen kirikae). Failing it means the license cannot be renewed — a serious matter for people in rural areas where a car is the only practical way to reach a hospital or supermarket. Once the "direction change" maneuver is added, drivers will have to look to the rear and sides while switching correctly between accelerator and brake. Since the test is conducted in Japanese, it helps to get used in advance to the wording used at driving schools (backing up, re-adjusting the wheel, checking safety). With "failure to check safety" set to become a deduction item, the practical countermeasure is to make physically turning your head to check the front, left and right a daily habit rather than a test-day performance. Note that the on-road guidance in the elderly driver course for those 70+ uses the same content as the test, so feedback there is effectively a rehearsal.
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Source:
National Police Agency website (Report of the Expert Panel on the Review of the Driving Skills Test)This article was edited and written by freegent Inc. based on the source above.