Talk:Vehicle registration plates of Japan

mistakes
Given the several mistakes in the artist's representation -- compare the real thing at this site, might it not be a good idea to attempt a new version? Would try it myself, except that I haven't yet learnt how to upload images here :-(  -- Picapica 14:47, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Hi Pica&sup2; and thanks for your comments on the image. I can't believe I forgot the hyphen! I know how it happened, but overlooking it so many times, that's incredible. Glad you pointed it out. The image now has a hyphen, and I reduced the size of the hiragana. However, I intentionally kept the color a mismatch to the hiragana, so that nobody can claim we're using their plate without permission. (In Japan, the news media often blur out number plates to avoid such claims.)

If the old image still appears on your screen, you can try (1) Reload; (2) Clear the cache and reload again; (3) Edit the article, change the image size (e.g. to 251 px) and click on Show preview. I look forward to any comments you have about the new one.

And of course if you want to draw your own, or upload a public-domain photo, please feel free --- this is Wikipedia, so I don't own the article.

Thanks once again for calling my attention to the error. Fg2 09:09, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)


 * Nice one, Fg2! If I were going to be picky, I'd say make the hyphen shorter, though (see here). Now we just need to get the Japanese to change the image on their page! -- Picapica 12:42, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * P.S. Notice how the version issued for foreign travel (though I can't imagine many Japanese take their cars abroad) -- www.olavsplates.com/foto/j_tkt33mi5265_rear.jpg -- doesn't have a hyphen... ;-) -- Picapica 12:50, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * That's funny! Fg2 08:18, Oct 6, 2004 (UTC)

More Plate Images
I have created on the German version Kfz-Kennzeichen (Japan) all the registration plate versions. Feel free to use them also on the English version w:de:User:ThorstenS -213.42.2.26 07:04, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)


 * Thanks! You made it easy.

Display question
I've taken the liberty of amending the "other languages" links on & to point to Kfz-Kennzeichen (Japan) and to this article (they formerly pointed to the general KFZ-Kennzeichen and License plate pages).

What I can't work out is why, on License plate and &, the "old" image still displays, despite the fact that if you click on it you are taken to a page giving details of, and showing, the updated image. Would this be a browser problem at my end? -- the totally untechie Picapica 10:07, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * I don't know either, but to cope with it, I add or subtract a pixel from the image size, and it works fine. I changed it from 250 to 251, and as a result, it displays correctly for me. Take a look and see if it displays right for you. Fg2 10:20, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC)

How odd! The critical dimension on License plate, where it is a "thumb", appears to be 180/181px, and now that I have changed it to the larger figure the image is displaying correctly. Cheers. -- Picapica 11:26, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I have alphabetized the list of Land Transportation Offices. I realize that the original list (for which, vielen Dank, ThorstenS) was in N-S geographical order, but I thought that alphabetical order would probably be better for research purposes. I have also changed Adachi to Tama as the issuing office in the main text, to accord with the revised illustration. - Picapica 20:58, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)

LTOs: I have changed "Shonai" (which does not have a Wikipedia entry) in Yamagata Prefecture to Mikawa, since according to the Japanese article that is where code &#24196;&#20869; is issued. As far as I have been able to make out, Shonai is the name of a "local core area" in Yamagata Prefecture covering a number of municipalities of which Mikawa is one. Clarification is welcome if I've totally got hold of the wrong end of the stick! -- Picapica 22:02, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Prefectures are divided into pieces for non-governmental purposes such as weather forecasting (that's just one example). These can be different from the districts, and different from the old han etc. Mikawa is in the Shonai piece, even though it's not on the Shonai Plain. The map in the Japanese Wikipedia shows it as being the coastal piece. Lots of other links in this list should be made more precise&mdash;prefectures to prefectures and cities to cities. I hope to get to work on that over the weekend... But if you like, have at it! Fg2 22:59, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC)

Move
I moved the page to "Japanese license plates". Spelling in accordance with content of the article. SpNeo 08:28, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

Meaning of "licence series"
Could somebody explain what exactly "series" in the sentence  The number on the top line begins with a "5" or a "3" to indicate the series. means? I take care if the German wikipedia article and I like to clear the questions marks there. Thanks. -ThorstenS 07:10, 29 May 2005 (UTC)


 * Hi ThorstenS, The series are groups of numbers. The 3-series is for large passenger cars. In the 3-series, the number on the top line will begin with a 3. Thus, if the top number is 3, 33, 300, 330 or any other number, the plate is a 3-series and it's appropriate for a large passenger car. The 5-series includes top-line numbers of 5, 56, 500, etc. Plates with that top number are ordinary-size passenger cars. There are other series as well. In any series, the bottom number (the one that appears big on the plate) can be anywhere from 1 to 9999. I hope that helps clear up the issue. I made the change because a reader asked in English on the Japanese Wikipedia article, and I realized that in the English article I hadn't mentioned the connection between series and the number. Please ask again if you have more questions. Fg2 09:03, May 29, 2005 (UTC)

US Military Personally Owned Vehicles
I've added a sentence stating what the plates for personal vehicles owned by people in the US Military are (at least that I have seen through observation here). If there are any questions, ask me. (I live in Okinawa, and one of the plates on a van my family owns is &#27798;&#32260;300Y3276 [if I recall correctly] if that helps.) CJewell &#91;&#91;User_talk:CJewell&#124;(talk)]] 02:45, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Importance of place of registration
Is the place of registration part of the actual registration of the car? I have noticed the government records here in Ireland of a friend's car imported from Japan omits this and only says "599 SO 14-80" as the car's original registration. Is that sufficient or were they just too lazy to look up the kanji? --Zilog Jones 14:02, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
 * More than likely the second explanation, I'd say. The SO would be the romanization of an original そ hiragana appearing on the second line of the original plates as the first part of the serial index. Perhaps they thought that the characters representing the issuing office (which ought to be shown before the vehicle class – in this case, 599) were just some kind of alternative/repeat version of "SO": rather like SLIGEACH at the top of an Irish plate with an index beginning SO..! -- Picapica (talk) 12:33, 13 February 2014 (UTC) (Nearly eight years late in replying, but there you go)

Question
What type of license plate is this ? I can't see any explanation on the page.

http://geting.se/viewimage.php?image=203621-2007_10080102_400.jpg

79.116.115.230 (talk) 02:58, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

Need for cleanup
I just removed the totally hopeless section which was MT from the Japanese page, I think. The whole page is a mess and needs serious cleanup from someone who finds this at least slightly interesting. Sorry, I don't know how to put the appropriate templates on the page. Perhaps someone could add them. Imaginatorium (talk) 07:14, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

Plate sizes
Are you sure about the dimensions of the license plates? I don't have the latest regulation (necessarily), but this is the information regarding the license plate sizes that comes from JIS 5500 (1995), which discusses the measuring of photometric test points on the various license plates. (I would embed a screendump of the relevant JIS 5500 page but I don't know how.)

Measuring points (dimensions from article given in parenthesis):

Large plate: 34 x 12 (44 x 22) Medium plate: 25 x 10 (33 x 16.5) Small plate: 18 x 17 (23 x 12.5) Moped: 12 x 5 (20 x 10)?

Keep in mind these are measuring points interior to the plate. So if you look at the dimensions, the large plate is +10 cm in both length and width (makes sense). The medium plate is +8 L +6.5 W (still roughly the same scale, but not quite). The small plate, though, is nearly square according to JIS 5500, but quite rectangular here.

I actually came to this page to try and find how to figure out which plate should be used, and was surprised by this apparent dimensional mismatch. Any help in elucidating this would be appreciated.

Todd Tirgang (talk) 17:30, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Vehicle registration plates of Japan. Please take a moment to review my edit. You may add after the link to keep me from modifying it, if I keep adding bad data, but formatting bugs should be reported instead. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether, but should be used as a last resort. I made the following changes:
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.fitzgerald.navy.mil/site%20pages/howtobuy.aspx

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 07:24, 31 March 2016 (UTC)

United States Forces Japan
need to be folded in. The German article expands on this.--Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 11:09, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

hiragana
Everyone I have talked to says the left-side hiragana is disregarded. It must have some meaning, else they wouldn't use it. Can anyone clarify?--Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 00:05, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

2020 Tokyo Olympic license plate designs narrowed down to 5
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20170628/p2a/00m/0na/011000c

Japanese License Plate Red Stripe Meaning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un44_WWgNKY

Say why the last two are in bold font
Why are the last two bold?? Jidanni (talk) 18:12, 19 August 2018 (UTC)
 * さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆよらりるろれわ''

Incorrect vehicle type information
The information in the "vehicle class code section", in particular the table copied from www.tigerdude.com, is incorrect. I haven't yet found an authoritative source, but as a resident of Japan, I know firsthand that the three digit type code must be considered in tandem with the plate color -- for example, the 4xx series vehicle class code on a yellow-plate (Kei) car does not mean the vehicle is a truck or van, nor does it mean the vehicle is over 600cc.

It looks to me at first glance like this information applies only to white/green plate (vehicles > 660cc, etc.) vehicles, not yellow/black plate Kei vehicles, but I can't say for sure. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 153.210.165.236 (talk) 00:29, 6 October 2018 (UTC)