At JPC, we have a few company cars and one of them, my favourite Step Wagon is going to need its 3rd Shaken soon. Shaken is the main safety inspection for vehicles in Japan and all motor vehicles (motor bikes and cars) are required to pass the inspection periodically, which is 3 years after the purchase if you buy them brand new, or every 2 years for older ones. By passing the Shaken, you are allowed to drive them on public roads until the next one is due. They check whether the cars are safe to be driven around and if the cars smog emission is within the standard, etc.We sell cars as a business and we look after our vehicles very well every day. Although we did not think the Wagon needed to be checked, because we do not have a chance to do proper maintenance & check, we took it to a mechanic to carry out the Shaken.
They found nothing wrong with the wagon as we expected but I found the engine oil was a bit dirty, so I changed it along the way. They say “It is good to have a shelter against every storm”, don’t they?
When the inspection was finished, I got the certificate to take it to the nearest Land Transport office. We go there every time we need to export cars for deregistration and we dropped the certificate off when we had to go there last time. The procedure is simple but every Shaken cost around JPY100,000 which is a great headache for most people.
Then I wondered what sort of the system other countries have. I thought this only happens in Japan but No, there are similar ones in Europe and the USA. I guess they are one of the world’s top car-oriented countries too, aren’t they? The traffic conditions and safety measures might be different but there is not much difference between the inspection systems. In Germany and Korea, it is the same as Japan, 3 years after the purchase if they are new then every 2 years; in the UK, 3 years first then yearly after that, in France 4 years first then 2 years later and every 3 years once they are older than 10 years.
Now I have a very simple question: having similar safety inspection systems, why do people want to import cars from Japan? I asked one of our customers in Europe. He said that used cars over there are not in as good a condition as the ones you can find in Japan. This could be because we have such a small land area and do not take cars for long distance drive. We, used car dealers consider the average yearly millage as 10,000Km but when you look at cars at auction, a lot of them are under 10,000Km. When they only use cars on the weekend, their cars can have only done 3,000Km – 5,000Km. (But when I was talking to a dealer in Korea, he said 10,000Km a year was too low. Thinking of the country’s smaller size, it might be a reflection of their national character.)
Getting back onto the track, another reason for the high quality of used cars in Japan could be because of the existence of the maker-dealers. According to a survey done by a professional survey company, 60-70% of the cars listed at auction in Japan are from maker-dealers (“dealers” hereafter). The car dealers who sold new cars to customer s trading in their old cars take them straight to auction. 2 in 3 people buy cars through a dealer in Japan so to speak. Japanese trust brands like “Toyota”, “Nissan” and “Honda”. People buy cars from them feeling safer even if it is a bit more expensive, then let them do the maintenance as well by following the dealers’ advice. Of course, these cars are well-maintained. We sometimes find some unnecessary services when we check their records. I can safely say that, it is because cars are regularly maintained by the dealers, it leads to the quality assurance in the used car market nationwide.
We are helping customers all over the world to import high quality used cars from Japan. I guarantee your satisfaction even for the first time customers who have never done this before. We look forward to your enquiries.
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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955
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