Japan Offers Multilingual SIM Test For Taxi And Bus Drivers

Taxi illustration in Japan. (Wikimedia Commons/N509FZ)

JAKARTA - Japan will offer SIM exams for taxi and bus drivers in foreign languages amid a shortage of drivers, with police agencies going to distribute instances of questions in the next few weeks.

The National Police Agency (NPA) will issue examples of exam questions in 20 languages to prefectural police across the country by the end of March, allowing them to formulate their own questions based on local needs, an official said.

A new multilingual approach to SIM emerged after industry groups facing driver shortages asked that more things be done to allow foreign nationals to work in relevant sectors.

SIMs are needed to operate passenger transport vehicles, such as buses and local taxis. So far, the test for obtaining it is only given in Japanese.

At the end of 2022, foreign nationals only amounted to 5,189, or 0.6 percent, out of 880,536 class 2 SIM holders, according to the agency.

Asian languages will be the majority of the 20 languages offered, including Mandarin, Korean, and Tagalog. However, there are also languages from European countries, such as English and Portuguese.

NPA said they had previously not provided a test for licenses in foreign languages because they had not received a specific request to do so.

This change will make the testing system in line with the testing system for class 1 SIMs for private cars, motorcycles and other motorized vehicles. NPA has been distributing instances of questions for class 1 exams in English since 2009, and the exam has been available in the same 20 languages.

It is known, in addition to questions about traffic regulations included in the 1st grade exam, class 2 exams also test knowledge of vehicle safety procedures such as brake inspections. This test is purely a technical test and has no questions about interaction with customers.