Foreign License Conversion
in Chiba Prefecture

Police organization:

Chiba Prefectural Police (千葉県警察)

Test center:

Chiba Driver's License Center (千葉運転免許センター)

City

Chiba City

Access

The Chiba Driver's License Center is the ONLY location in Chiba Prefecture that handles foreign license conversion (gaimen kirikae); the Nagareyama Driver's License Center does NOT process conversions. (Confirmed on the official police page.)

Test languages:

20 languages (nationwide standard since June 2024)

Reservation required

How to reserve

Phone only (no online booking found). Call 043-274-2000 and follow the voice guidance: press 1, then 55, then 1. The document review itself requires no reservation, but the knowledge confirmation (gakka) and skill confirmation (giken) are reservation-based and booked separately from the document review. Reservations are booked several months in advance due to high applicant volume. Groups of 5+ must call at least 7 days before the desired date.

Phone

043-274-2000

Reception hours

Reservation phone line: weekdays 4:30 PM–5:00 PM. In-person application/reception desk hours: weekdays 8:30–9:00 AM and 1:00–1:30 PM; closed weekends, holidays, and year-end/New Year. No late entries accepted.

Knowledge confirmation (written knowledge test) is available in 20 languages (confirmed on official page): English, Spanish, Persian, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin), Portuguese, Russian, Thai, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Khmer, Nepali, Myanmar (Burmese), Mongolian, Ukrainian, Sinhala, Urdu, Arabic, and Hindi. Applicants who cannot communicate in Japanese must bring their own interpreter. Separately, multilingual police leaflets are provided in 10 languages (Japanese, English, Thai, Tagalog, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian); these cover general police systems (road signs, lost-and-found, 110 emergency reporting) and do NOT cover the license-conversion procedure.

The official police page confirms fees apply but does NOT itemize amounts (it directs applicants to inquire). A third-party driving-school site (w-ms.jp) lists figures of ¥2,550 + ¥200 (application/handling) and ¥2,050 (issuance), but that page also bundled a ¥23,600 total tied to driving-school services, so the figures are unverified and may be conflated with school costs. Exact fees should be reconfirmed against an official fee table.

The Chiba Driver's License Center is the sole site for foreign license conversion in the prefecture; the Nagareyama center does not handle it. Demand is very high — knowledge- and skill-confirmation reservations are backed up several months. Process flow (per official page): document review → knowledge confirmation (separately booked, held on a later date) → aptitude test → skill confirmation → license issuance. Applicants must bring their own interpreter if not Japanese-capable.

We could not confirm the following from primary sources. Please check the official page before relying on them:

• Exact itemized fee amounts — only from third-party w-ms.jp (which bundled a ¥23,600 total with driving-school costs); official page does not list amounts.
• Precise ward/street address/postal code of the Chiba Driver's License Center (only 'Chiba Driver's License Center' confirmed; 'Mihama-ku/Makuhari' not confirmed on fetched official pages).
• Claim that moped document-review requires a reservation since June 16, 2024 — not found on official page (which states document review needs no reservation); removed.
• Claim that knowledge and skill confirmations are conducted on the same day — not confirmed on fetched pages (flow shows knowledge confirmation on a later date); removed.
• No online reservation system found — appears phone-only (043-274-2000).

Always verify on the prefectural police's official page before you go — addresses, reservation methods, and document requirements change frequently.

• Official page (Japanese) ↗ — open via Google Translate / DeepL
• Official English content ↗
• Official source ↗ https://www.police.pref.chiba.jp/menkyoka/licence_foreign.html
• Official source ↗ https://www.w-ms.jp/gaikoku.html

The 6-step process (eligibility → translation → appointment → document screening → 50-question test → practical test) is the same nationwide. See the main hub for the complete walkthrough, document checklist, and translation services.