SUPER STREET April 2013: TETSU’S TALES – STRAIGHT OUTTA J-PAN

 Another copied print article for you all to read.  This time fro Super Street, from Tetsuya Ogushi.  It breaks down the meaning behind all the numbers and letters on the Japanese license plates.  I am sure some of you all would find it interesting.. enjoy

Copied from April 2013 Super Street Magazine

TETSU’S TALES – STRAIGHT OUTTA J-PAN

Written By: Tetsuya Ogushi

I saw Japanese license plate on feature cars in Super Street magazine.  But I guess most of Super Street readers don’t know what Japanese Kanji and numbers on the plate mean.  Japanese license plate says what car it is.  Japanese license plate for cars have four colors.  White means non-commercial cars; green means commercial cars; yellow means non-commercial K-car (under 660cc cars); black means commercial K-car.  The left side of the upper section on the plate says the city of name with the land transportation office, or Shakenjyou in Japanese.  All of the cars in Japan must go to the land transportation office for a government inspection every year (or two years) for getting license plate for new cars.  There are many transportation offices in Japan and car owners cannot choose the office because an office is appointed by an owner’s address.  For example: I do not live in Tokyo, that’s why I can’t get a license plate in the Tokyo area.

The right side of the upper section on the plate has two or three columns of numbers.  The numbers say the size, displacement volume of the engine and capacity of the car.  The first column on a number is 1, which means it’s a freight car (truck).  The number 2 means the car (or bus) can take over 11 passenger cars.  The number 3 means under 10 passengers or over 2001cc engine.  Size of cars are same as number 1.  The number 4 means small freight cars, which has 2,000cc (or less) motor (non limited for diesel motor).  The number 5 means non-freight cars and same size as number 4.  The number 8 is for special use; police and fire department vehicles have these. 

The left side of lower section on the plate is Japanese Hiragana.  The are many Hiragana on the plate but Wa or Re means rent-a-car.  A, I, U, E, O, Ka, ki, Ke and Ku mean commercial cars.  Some Japanese license plate say Y or Ein the alphabet; that means the owners are US military living in Japan.  The right side of the lower section on the plate says 1, 2, 3 or 4 columns of numbers has no real meaning.  But the two columns on the bottom will never have 42 because in Japanese 42 means “for death”.  Two columns on tops have 42.  I think there is a license plate that says 42-19.  Japanese will read “go for death” with 4219.  I have never seen a 4219 license plate in Japan. 

Famous Silvia shop, Yashio Factory’s demo-cars have the license plate which says 840.  Japanese see 840.0 as zero but looks like 0 in alphabet.