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

Japanese Vehicle Documents — Field by Field, and What Each One Won't Tell You

Published 2026-07-31

Three documents matter when you buy a car out of Japan. English guides usually treat them as one thing called “the export certificate,” which causes two problems: buyers ask for the wrong document at the wrong time, and they read fields that mean something other than what they assume.

This is a field-by-field guide, written from the Japanese documents and the rules behind them.

One thing to know before anything else: since January 2023 the Japanese inspection certificate has been an IC-chip card, and several of the fields you most want — including the region the car lived in and the owner details — are no longer printed on it. A photograph of a modern certificate will not show them. §6 covers what to ask for instead.

Part of our documents series, alongside Grade R vs RA and the 25-year rule by manufacture month.

1. Three documents, three moments

WhenDocumentWhat it is
Before you buy車検証 (shakensho) — inspection certificateThe car’s live registration document. This is what your agent photographs for you
After purchase — car was still registered and plated輸出抹消仮登録証明書 — export deregistration certificateIssued when a registered car is deregistered for export
After purchase — car was already deregistered輸出予定届出証明書 — export intent certificateIssued instead, when the car was already on 一時抹消 (temporary deregistration)

The last two are alternatives, not stages. Which one you receive depends on the car’s registration status when export processing began — and English sources routinely present only one of them, leaving buyers convinced they were sent the wrong paperwork.

And it tells you something. A car on 一時抹消 was already off the road and unregistered before it entered the export pipeline — deregistered stock, long-term storage, or a non-runner. Not necessarily bad, but a different history from a car driven to the deregistration counter on its own plates. If you receive an 輸出予定届出証明書, ask how long the car had been deregistered.

(There is a fee asymmetry that confirms they’re distinct instruments: returning an unused 輸出抹消仮登録証明書 costs ¥350; returning an 輸出予定届出証明書 is free.)

2. The fields that decide things

Present in substantially the same form across the documents.

車台番号 — chassis number

Your identity anchor. It must match across the auction sheet, the certificate, the export permit, the bill of lading, and the car itself. Recycling-fee refund claims require it on the export permit copy. Any mismatch stops everything.

Note it does not encode a build date — see §5.

原動機の型式 — engine model ★ this one has teeth

The engine type code. Read it, and check it against the factory engine for that chassis.

Why it matters more than anything else on the page for US buyers: the EPA’s exemption route for vehicles over 21 years old requires the engine to be identical or equivalent to the one originally installed. A car can clear NHTSA on age and fail EPA on an engine swap. This field is where that shows up in writing.

For a JDM enthusiast chassis — an S15, a JZX100, anything with a tuning history — this is not a hypothetical.

型式 — model code

The chassis/model designation (e.g. JB23W). Combined with the two numbers below it identifies the car precisely.

型式指定番号 and 類別区分番号 — type designation and classification numbers ★ underused

A 5-digit type designation number and a 3–4 digit classification number.

Together they let you confirm the actual factory grade, rather than trusting the seller’s description. Manufacturer lookup services accept them.

And a detection trick that costs nothing: on a parallel-import vehicle, both fields are blank. If you are looking at what is supposed to be a JDM-market car and these are empty, it was imported into Japan rather than sold there — a materially different provenance.

Caveat: grade lookup is only reliable if the car hasn’t been through a registered structural modification — which brings us to the next field.

「改」 — the modification marking ★ nobody writes about this in English

If a car undergoes a registered structural change — a different engine type, fuel system, brakes, transmission, or suspension specification — Japan requires a 構造変更 (structural change) application, and the certificate is marked 改 (kai, “modified”).

English guides say modified cars carry “unknown history.” That’s not quite right. Japan documents legally-registered structural modification on the paperwork. A swapped engine of a different type requires the application, the strength calculations for the drivetrain, an inspection, and a rewritten engine-model field.

Two readings, both useful:

Same-type, same-displacement engine replacement does not require the application and produces no 改.

初度登録年月 — date of first registration ★

Month and year the car was first registered in Japan. The single most misread field on the document.

It is not the manufacture date, and the manufacture date is not recorded anywhere on the Japanese paperwork. The gap runs 1–6 months and can be far longer for unsold stock. But because registration always follows manufacture, first registration 25+ years ago proves manufacture 25+ years ago — which is the shortcut most importers miss. Full explanation here.

使用の本拠の位置 — base location ★ this is the region field

The place the vehicle is based and managed from. It also determines the number-plate district.

This is the answer to “which prefecture did this car live in?” — the question that matters more than mileage for corrosion, given that a snow-region car at 100,000 km will usually have rotted somewhere while a western-Japan car can be clean at 200,000 km. See our JB23 rust map.

Reading it: if the field shows ***, that means same as the user’s address — so read the user’s address instead. Note the base location is where the car is used and managed, not necessarily where it is parked.

総排気量 — engine displacement

Matters for destination-country rules. Japan’s sanctions regime on exports to Russia, for example, turns on a 1,900 cc threshold. Check your destination’s rules against this field, not against the marketing name of the engine.

所有者 / 使用者 — owner and user ★ a hard blocker

Owner and registered user, listed separately. Where a car is on lease or finance, the finance company appears as owner.

The rule that stops shipments: if the exporter and the post-deregistration owner are not the same party, the export procedure cannot proceed. Name alignment is not a formality — confirm it before money moves.

輸出予定日 / 有効期間 — planned export date and validity ★ it expires

The export certificate is valid only until the stated planned export date.

If the car doesn’t ship by then, the certificate must be returned to the transport bureau within 15 days. You then need it reissued, or the car converted back to a 一時抹消 record before it can be re-registered domestically.

Practical consequence: shipping delays — port congestion, a missed sailing, an inspection failure — can expire your paperwork. If your schedule slips, raise it with your exporter rather than assuming the document waits.

3. What the documents do not contain

4. The electronic certificate problem — read this if the car is 2023 or later

From 4 January 2023, newly issued Japanese inspection certificates are electronic: an A6-sized card carrying an IC tag, replacing the A4 paper document. Kei vehicles followed from January 2024. Each vehicle also gained a vehicle ID.

The problem for you: the printed face carries only basic, rarely-changing information. These fields moved into the IC chip and are not printed:

So a photograph of a modern certificate cannot show you the region the car lived in or who owned it. Reading the chip requires the official viewer application plus an NFC-capable phone or an ISO/IEC 14443 Type A card reader.

What to ask for instead:

「自動車検査証記録事項」の写し — a copy of the recorded particulars printout

This is the printout of the chip contents. Any Japanese dealer, agent, or inspection facility can produce one. Alternatively, ask your agent to read the chip with the viewer app and export a PDF.

A timing note, flagged as needing confirmation: a transitional measure provided the 記録事項 paper alongside the card for the first three years from the January 2023 start, after which distribution was to cease. That window ends around January 2026 — i.e. now. We have not confirmed the current status directly, so ask your agent whether they can still obtain one, and be ready to request a chip read instead.

5. Checklist

Before you buy — you’re looking at a 車検証

After you buy — you’re receiving an export certificate

Method and limits

Sources. Japanese administrative-scrivener (行政書士) practice guides on export deregistration, Japanese explanations of inspection certificate fields, ministry and industry material on the 2023 electronic certificate rollout, police guidance on 使用の本拠の位置, and Japanese documentation of 構造変更 and the 改 marking. Collected 2026-07-31.

Limits:

Sources