***2016 UPDATE HERE***
It is that time of the year I guess to pay your road tax! This is an annual requirement and the payment timeframe is April 1st through May 31st. You can pay at your car insurance providers’ offices or at the local Japanese offices that handle such things. Or you can wait for all the relevant officials to come to the military base close to you and get everything done in one shot. However, I heard Kadena’s Road tax days are complete chaos and the lines are long, so I am going to do everything on my own. From what I found out, I will just go to my car insurance provider’s office at the USO on Kadena, pay the tax, then take everything to Foster to get the sticker. I heard there will be a wait for the sticker at Foster, but you will be waiting in your car, not standing around for hours like you would be during Kadena’s Road tax days. I will post an update to this process once I do it next week.
It is that time of the year I guess to pay your road tax! This is an annual requirement and the payment timeframe is April 1st through May 31st. You can pay at your car insurance providers’ offices or at the local Japanese offices that handle such things. Or you can wait for all the relevant officials to come to the military base close to you and get everything done in one shot. However, I heard Kadena’s Road tax days are complete chaos and the lines are long, so I am going to do everything on my own. From what I found out, I will just go to my car insurance provider’s office at the USO on Kadena, pay the tax, then take everything to Foster to get the sticker. I heard there will be a wait for the sticker at Foster, but you will be waiting in your car, not standing around for hours like you would be during Kadena’s Road tax days. I will post an update to this process once I do it next week.
Also, I wanted to point out something about the road tax you have to pay, that I think most island newbie’s won’t know about when they buy their cars. You can tell about how much your annual road tax will be by seeing what plate is on the car. Reference the road tax hand-out below to find how much tax is due, by plate number. For example, I have a 500 and a 300 (under 4500cc) plated cars, so my total cost will be ¥26500 or about $265! If you have two 300 plated cars, you can see it is now starting to get expensive. So I put this information out for those families that are on a limited income, and didn’t know about the road tax fee structures when they first bought their cars. This can be quite financial shock to some and they may be wishing they knew this before. Combine the annual road taxes, your annual car insurance cost, the bi-annual JCI cost, and it is readily apparent that it is really expensive to drive here in Japan. Heaven forbid you took the 18 month financing option for your car on top of all that too! I suspect the lemon lot gets a little fuller after the road tax season, especially when families consider the costs involved, and find it isn’t worth it driving the bigger and/or the “fast and furious” type cars they may have.
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| 2014 Road Tax Collection Schedule |
Ok, I know it has been way over a week now, but I finally got my road tax sticker today. And let me tell you, it is super easy. Well as I mentioned above, I paid one of my car’s road tax fee at the insurance place at the USO on Kadena AB. Please note they charge a ¥500 fee on top of the normal tax fee, for their “service”. So after you pay and give them your official title/insurance/JCI paperwork, they give you temporary copies, so you can drive around your car while they process all the paperwork. It takes a couple of business days to do that, and when they are done (they give you a date), you just go back with the temp paperwork, and walk out with all your original paperwork, plus the new paid road tax receipt. BUT you are not done! You have to go pickup the actual road tax sticker at the vehicle registration/JCI place on Foster. The insurance office can give you good directions, but basically just drive down Hwy 58 out of Kadena AB towards Foster, go in the “Commissary” gate right off Hwy 58, and then make a right towards the vehicle registration/JCI place on the left. It is basically 30 seconds in from the gate just past the AAFES garage. Be sure to turn in to lane 2 when you pull in and follow the instructions given to you. Once they get to you, they will take your paperwork, and come back with your sticker, all without even leaving your car! I believe they will put the sticker on for you, but I am anal, and I will do it myself. I got there around 1030ish, and there was nobody there, so I was in and out. So that is about it and it was a piece of cake!
ReplyDeleteI forgot I made a Google map link for the vehicle registration/JCI place on Foster! So here it is...
ReplyDeletehttp://goo.gl/maps/uJrJN
If I pay at the registration place do I need Yen? Can I pay in cash or credit card?
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteTo what services are you referring to at the registration place? Since I don't believe you can actually pay your road tax there, you have to pay that at your insurance office or one of the local japanese tax offices. Either way, that has to be in yen cash only. If you are referring to the JCI service at the registration place, they take cash dollars for inspection and then yen cash only for everything else. In all cases, no credit cards are accepted. Hope this helps you.