Japan will sharply tighten the on-road skills test that drivers aged 75 and older must pass to renew their licenses if they have a record of traffic violations. The revised test adds a task combining several maneuvers, including reverse parking, and will fail applicants on the spot if they do not come to a full stop where required. The aim is to screen out drivers prone to accidents caused by confusing the accelerator with the brake.
A panel of experts at Japan's National Police Agency finalized a report on the 3rd outlining the overhaul of the driving skills test, which is conducted in an actual vehicle. The agency plans to revise the enforcement rules of the Road Traffic Act and other regulations to introduce the changes next year.
The test applies to drivers aged 75 and older who have committed any of 16 types of violations, such as running a red light or speeding, within three years before renewing their license. The panel said in its report that even drivers whose declining skills put them at high risk of accidents are passing the current test.
The centerpiece is a new "direction change" task. Applicants must reverse while turning the steering wheel, come to a stop, then turn the wheel the other way and drive off again. The task simulates parking in a garage, and hitting an obstacle during the maneuver costs 20 points. Another new item, "failure to check for safety," deducts 10 points if a driver does not turn their head to look both ways at blind intersections or stop lines. The penalty for failing to make a full stop rises to a maximum of 40 points from the current maximum of 20. Because applicants need at least 70 points out of 100 to pass, a single violation effectively means failure.
The current test consists of five tasks: driving at a designated speed, stopping fully, turning left and right, passing through signals and mounting a curb. Japan introduced the system in May 2022. The problem was that it did not distinguish between drivers. Of the 150,000 people who took the test last year, 93% passed.
The National Police Agency tracked drivers aged 75 and older who renewed their licenses in 2023 for two years and found that those who had violation records yet passed the skills test were involved in 1,575 accidents per 100,000 drivers. That meant the test was failing to screen out the drivers it was designed to catch. Pressure for the overhaul also came from the fact that about 70% of fatal accidents caused by pedal misapplication involved drivers aged 75 and older.
In a mock assessment the agency conducted in July on 147 people under the new standards, the pass rate fell to 81.6%. That is about 11 percentage points below last year's 93%.
South Korea is also discussing tighter oversight of older drivers, but remains at the stage of reviewing driving-ability assessments and conditional licenses. As Japan moves a step further toward directly measuring driving skills behind the wheel, the gap with South Korea's system, which centers on cognitive testing, is set to widen.
