Taxi Driver Shortage, Japan To Hold SIM Test In 20 Languages

Archives - JPN Taxi from Toyota Motor Corp was spotted on a street in Shinjuku, Japan. (ANTARA News/HO/Toyota Astra Mo)

JAKARTA - Japan plans to offer a test to obtain a driving license (SIM) in foreign languages to address the shortage of taxi drivers and buses in the country. An official at the National Police Agency (NPA) was quoted from OANA/Kyodo via Antara, Sunday, February 11, said that his party would immediately distribute examples of exam questions in 20 languages to prefectural police throughout Japan at the end of March. Later, the local police can use the example of the exam as a guide to formulate questions based on local needs. The majority of the 20 languages are languages in Asia, such as China, Korea, and Tagalog. However, there are also English and Portuguese. The new multi-language approach for class 2 SIMs emerged after industry players faced the scarcity of drivers. They asked for more efforts to make foreign nationals to work in related sectors. The driver's license is necessary to operate passenger vehicles, such as buses and taxis, but so far the test for obtaining the driver's license has been given in Japanese only. NPA admitted that the SIM test in a foreign language was not previously available because there was no specific request. The policy will follow the class 1 SIM testing system for private cars, motorcycles, and other cars. Since 2009, NPA has provided SIM exams in English and exams for class 1 SIMs are currently available in 20 languages.

In addition to traffic rules such as in class 1 SIM exams, the exam for class 2 SIM holders also tests driver's knowledge of vehicle safety procedures such as brake checks. The test was purely technical and there were no questions about interacting with customers.