Importing a car from Japan to Australia - Part 1

A while ago I said I would write a couple of words about the process of importing a car from Japan. Personally I found that when searching the web for this kind of information it was scattered, sometimes incorrect and often misleading.

This post will be the 1st one of I don't know how many yet but as they come along I hope they'll give you some ideas on how to go about it.

There are obviously many ways to import a car from Japan to Australia and I will concentrate only on the one which is know best which is personal importing.

So what constitutues a personal import ? In a nutshell, if you owned and used a car in Japan for a continuous period of 12 months or more you're eligible. Sounds simple huh ? Well yes and no !

First of all, you'll need to have evidence (in English) which shows the following :

• You purchased the car at least 12 months ago and you have a document of such purchase. This is usually pretty straight forward and the document needs to be translated to English at least for the important pieces. If you don't have such a document it's not a show stopper as many expats don't buy cars with an intention of importing them into their own country (at least initially) !
• Your car was parked for a period of 12 months or so at or near your place of residence. This means that if you moved in the last 12 months you'll need to show a parking contract of each of the parking spaces and the proximity of these spaces to your place of residence. This means a translation of contracts for both parking and residence. A huge pain in the ass especially in Japan where getting specific documents is very painful and time consuming. A screenshot of Google Maps helps to show proximities of parking if it's not at your place of residence.
• You need to show a copy of your passport and all of its pages showing your travel in and out of japan during the period of 12 months or beyond. This also needs to be substantiated with your own statement saying when, where and how long for you were out of Japan. Basically you'll only be eligible for import if your actual stay in Japan is 12 months or longer and any travel out of the country isn't counted. Sucks if you do overseas business trips for lenghty periods of time ! Keep that in mind !
• You need to show a copy of the compulsory japanese insurance and have it translated showing you paid the insurance for the last 12 months. You should have that when you purchased the car or were asked to renew it.
• You need to show a copy of the compulsory japanese tax and have it translated showing you paid tax for the last 12 months. Same deal as above.
• You'll need to show a copy of your current vehicle registration known as a shaken certificate. This also needs to backup your claims of ownership in the last 12 months. Again all translated.
• You'll need to show a copy of your Japanese driver's licence which should have been obtained at least 12 months ago. This alone can be a show stopper.
• You'll need to show a copy of your Australian driver's license which should also be valid. No idea why they needed that to be honest.

If you think we're done, well not quite !
What follows is a bunch of evidences of your intention to actually leave Japan and move back to Australia ! Great huh !?

You'll need :

• A document from your employer or ex-employer showing when you intend to resign or when you resigned from your job
• A document from your current landlord showing you intend to move out from your apartment. This apartment address must be the one where the car was parked in its 12 month period of interest.
• A plane ticket showing your departure date or an intention to depart Japan

Obviously different people have different circumstances but the above documents are standard across all applications. One difference in my case was I started applying whilst still in Japan whereas most people apply after arrival in Australia so I just had to show my intention to resign and no actual plane ticket.

In terms of costs, you'll need to have every document requested translated to English which is costly. I think in my case around 20,000yen or so. It also takes time.

And to sum up, when you think you want to import a car using this scheme you should first read some information here, download this form, send it the Department of Infrastructure, Transport... and pay $AUD50.00 and if all goes well after about 4 weeks you will receive a letter with your own Vehicle Import Approval (VIA) stating you were granted a Personal Import against a given make/model/chassis.

The biggest pain was getting all documents together and having them translated. The application is pretty straight forward and in case they need more information they'll email you so it's best to provide as much as you can at the onset to speed up the process.

Choose your car carefully also as these days you can only get a VIA once every 5 years !

In Part 2, I'll touch on preparation and shipping ...