Japan Vehicle Data
Japanese-language primary sources, aggregated for buyers outside Japan

Electronic Shakken Japan 2023: What Changed and What Buyers Can No Longer Read

Published 2026-08-07 ・ 14 min read ・ Japan Vehicle Data

If you bought a Japanese used car before 2023, the inspection certificate your agent photographed was an A4 paper sheet. Every field you cared about — who owned it, where it was based, when the inspection expires — was printed in plain text.

From 4 January 2023, that A4 sheet no longer exists for standard vehicles. What replaced it is an A6-sized card with an embedded IC chip. The card face shows only the fields that almost never change. The fields you most need as an import buyer — including which prefecture the car lived in — are locked inside the chip.

Most English-language guides to buying Japanese used cars were written before this change, or have not been updated since. This article explains exactly what moved, what did not, how to retrieve the missing data, and what is still unconfirmed as of August 2026.

What the old certificate looked like

The pre-2023 shakken was a single A4 paper document, issued at every inspection and filed in the car’s glovebox. It contained all registration data in printed text:

An agent could photograph it, and you could read every field.

What the new card looks like (from January 2023)

The electronic certificate (電子車検証, denshi shakensho) is an A6 card — roughly the size of an index card — with an embedded IC chip. A QR code on the card gives access to the chip reader app.

What remains printed on the card face:

These are the fields that do not change between inspections or ownership transfers:

What moved to the IC chip:

These fields change with each inspection renewal or registration change, and have been removed from the printed face:

The last item is the critical one for import buyers. This is the field that tells you which prefecture — and therefore which climate zone — the car lived in. It is no longer readable from a photograph of the certificate.

Source: DNP business column on electronic shakken, retrieved 2026-08-07: https://www.dnp.co.jp/biz/column/detail/20172199_4969.html

Source: Kamitake Motors blog on the digitalization of vehicle inspection certificates, retrieved 2026-08-07: https://www.kamitake.net/blog/vehicle-inspection-certificate-digitalization/

Why this matters for import buyers

The base location problem

The 使用の本拠の位置 (base location) is not a curiosity — it is the single most useful field on the certificate for assessing corrosion risk. A car registered in Akita, Niigata, or Hokkaido has spent winters on salted roads. A car from Osaka or Hiroshima has not.

Before 2023: an agent’s photograph showed the base location in plain text.

From 2023 onward: a photograph of the card face shows nothing. The prefecture is in the chip.

A buyer who receives a photo of a modern certificate and assumes they can read the region field from it is working with incomplete information.

For why this matters in practice, see our JB23 rust map — a prefecture-by-prefecture breakdown of where rust tends to appear, which is directly correlated with base location.

The validity date problem

Knowing when the inspection expires tells you how much inspection coverage remains when you take delivery. That field is also in the chip now. A photograph cannot tell you.

The owner information problem

For vehicles still on domestic registration (i.e., those you might buy before deregistration), confirming the owner name matches the exporter is a legal requirement for export processing. That field is in the chip.

How to get the information you need

There are three routes.

Route 1: Request the 自動車検査証記録事項 printout

The 自動車検査証記録事項 (jidosha kensasho kiroku jiko) — “vehicle inspection certificate record” — is a paper printout of the chip contents. Any Japanese dealer, dealer agent, inspection facility, or transport bureau can produce one.

Ask your agent for this exact phrase:

「自動車検査証記録事項の写しをください」 Jidosha kensasho kiroku jiko no utsushi wo kudasai

This is not the certificate itself — it is a printout of everything stored in the chip, including the base location, validity date, and owner details. It is the functional replacement for what the old A4 certificate provided.

Route 2: IC chip read via the viewer app

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (国土交通省) provides a free 車検証閲覧アプリ (shakensho etsuran apuri) — vehicle inspection certificate viewer application — available for PC, iOS, and Android. The official portal for this app is:

https://www.denshishakensho-portal.mlit.go.jp/ (Retrieved 2026-08-07. App updates were listed through August 2026, confirming the system is actively maintained.)

Reading the chip requires an NFC-capable device (most modern smartphones qualify) or an external ISO/IEC 14443 Type A card reader for PC. The app can export the contents as a PDF, which your agent can send you.

The security code printed on the card face is required to access the chip data — the app is not open-read; the card must be physically present.

Route 3: Ask the agent to confirm specific fields

If neither of the above is available, ask your agent to read these fields directly from the card using the app and report them to you in writing:

This is a reasonable ask. Any dealer handling export inquiries in 2023 or later should be familiar with the process.

The transitional measure: 自動車検査証記録事項 paper supply

When the electronic system launched in January 2023, a transitional measure (経過措置) was put in place: for the first three years, the 記録事項 printout would be produced and distributed alongside the card at every inspection — automatically, without the owner needing to request it.

Under this arrangement, a car that had its inspection renewed between January 2023 and early 2026 would have arrived with a printed 記録事項 document already in the glovebox.

Confirmed: The transitional measure was defined as lasting three years from the January 2023 start date.

Unconfirmed as of this writing (August 2026): Whether the automatic distribution has now ended (which the three-year window would imply), been extended, or continues in some modified form. We have not been able to verify the current status against a primary source in the course of writing this article.

Inference: If the transitional period has ended, cars that had their inspection renewed after approximately January 2026 may no longer have a 記録事項 printout in the glovebox. Ask your agent explicitly, and be prepared to request a chip read if the printout is unavailable.

The kei vehicle timeline (January 2024)

Light vehicles (軽自動車, kei-sha) — including the Suzuki Jimny JB23 — are administered by a separate body, the Japan Automobile Inspection Association (軽自動車検査協会, KEIKENKYO), and followed a different rollout schedule.

Kei vehicles: electronic certificate issuance began January 2024.

The same pattern applies: the chip contains the base location, validity date, and owner information. The card face shows the stable fields.

The 車検証閲覧アプリ was updated in January 2024 to support kei vehicles. The KEIKENKYO page for the kei electronic certificate is:

https://www.keikenkyo.or.jp/information/computerization/ (Retrieved 2026-08-07. Page confirmed active, last updated May 2025.)

For kei vehicles, KEIKENKYO also offers an API service (車検証閲覧APIサービス) for business operators who need to retrieve inspection data programmatically.

A separate transitional measure applies to kei vehicles. Given the January 2024 start, the three-year automatic distribution window would extend to approximately January 2027 — meaning kei vehicle records may still be automatically produced at inspection as of this writing.

Unconfirmed: The exact end date or extension status of the kei vehicle transitional measure.

What this means if you are buying a specific car type

JB23 Jimny (kei vehicle, pre-2018): If the current owner renewed the inspection after January 2024, the certificate is electronic. The base location is in the chip. Request the 記録事項 printout or a chip read. Given the rust sensitivity of the JB23 ladder frame — documented in our JB23 rust map — the prefecture matters more than mileage for many buyers.

Standard vehicle (shakken issued or renewed after January 4, 2023): Same situation. If the agent’s photograph does not show the base location field clearly in printed text, it is an electronic certificate and the field is in the chip.

Pre-2023 vehicle with original pre-2023 paper certificate: The old A4 paper is still valid until the next inspection renewal. If the inspection hasn’t been renewed since before January 4, 2023, the paper certificate may still exist. At the next renewal, it is replaced with the electronic card.

For your agent: the exact request

When you ask your agent for the base location, use this:

「使用の本拠の位置を確認してください。電子車検証の場合は、自動車検査証記録事項の写し、またはアプリで読み取ったPDFをください。」

Translation: “Please confirm the base location. If it is an electronic certificate, please provide either a copy of the vehicle inspection certificate record printout, or a PDF read from the app.”

For more context on why all of this matters at the buying stage, see our full guide to Japanese vehicle documents.

Method and limits

Research conducted: We fetched and reviewed the following sources on 2026-08-07:

MLIT page access: Multiple MLIT URL patterns returned 404 or were inaccessible during fetch attempts on 2026-08-07. The primary MLIT source for this system (believed to be under https://www.mlit.go.jp/jidosha/) could not be directly verified — this is a limitation of this article. The field list and transitional measure details are drawn from the secondary sources above, which are consistent with each other and with the existing §4 content in our Japanese vehicle documents article.

Unverified items (explicitly flagged in article):

  1. Current status of the standard vehicle transitional measure (was the three-year automatic 記録事項 distribution extended past January 2026, or has it ended?). Not confirmed.
  2. Current status of the kei vehicle transitional measure end date. Not confirmed.
  3. Exact list of all fields currently in the IC chip beyond the four confirmed above. The sources examined consistently name the same four; whether additional fields have been added post-launch is unknown.

Limits:

Sources

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