TOKYO, Jan. 16, 2024—There was no direction whatsoever from the subway station to the place, and when the gloomy dark building loomed across the narrow street before a journalist, there was no doubt that it was the venues.
An obscure, discolored plaque said, ‘Koto Driving License Test Center’, in Japanese. There was no direction visibly posted for the floor where this journalist had to go for his cognitive level test that’s compulsory for senior drivers in Japan. A few steps into the hallway, the place reeked of ancient Japanese government office smell. He had to ask the receptionist, who visibly was not doing anything and looking bored sitting across the counter. She pointed her finger toward the elevator bank.
Going up to the 5th floor and getting off the elevator, the paper signs pasted on grayish plastic walls discolored by age and without esthetic considerations at all told visitors to sit on low blue benches until names are called.
Having arrived with sufficient lead time for the test, he explored the floor to read memos posted on plastic walls. All of them said the same thing: ‘Sit and wait.’ He then took the escalator down a flight, where he found it as for drivers who were ticketed for speeding and other minor violations. He also found a cafeteria, a drab looking eatery that serve ramen and deep-fried plates that few people would care to consume unless super-hungry.
The journalist went back up to the 5th floor and sat on the bench to wait for his name to be called. A half a dozen or so officials, all of them of the Metropolitan Police Department, surrounded about two dozens of waiting people as if to arrest them. The chief, a middle-aged man, shouted that the test would start shortly, pull out the post card notice on which your name is printed and wait.
Shortly afterwards, woman officers began checking the people’a postcard notices, then ushered them into Room 6.
Black curtains were drawn on the windows in the room, where small desks with a drab, hand-made pen stand stood on them. A middle-aged woman officer, who looked like a chief, came in and explained the test procedures. Basically, she told the attendees not to do anything other than what she tells them. The room was a literal school classroom during the World War II and long periods afterwards. She asked whether the attendees had any questions, clearly with the intent of refusal to take. The journalist asked one and she ignored it.
The test was over in less than half an hour and the attendees were given a certificate in exchange for a fee of 1,050 yen. The journalist concluded that this fee was pooled to be used as officers’ salaries, as least part of it.
The test was introduced about 20 years ago in response to increasing senior drivers’ traffic accidents. But in reality, seniors’ share of total accidents has not changed much, so it was for creating government jobs. Moreover, since seniors are required to take a separate driving aptitude test before his date of birth, as well as vision test later for driver’s license renewal, more jobs are created for police and retirees. Aptitude tests are held at civilian driving schools where many local police station retirees work as advisors and other capacities.
Hardly anything changes in Japan.
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