Parking Fees

As you know, Japan has a very small land area and we have 127.7 million people packed into it. JPC has its main office in Tokyo, the political and economic centre of the country. If you consider that within 70Km from central Tokyo is the metropolitan area, the day time population is around 35 millions. The figure is definitely larger than any other city in the world. It is weird to think that a 1/4 of the country’s population gathers into one area everyday, isn’t it?

Therefore, most cost is to do with the land as it is the world’s most expensive: we pay a very high rent for houses, offices and car parks. Having our main office in the middle of Tokyo, JPC pays an incredible amount for the car parks. Around the area, the average rent is JPY30,000 per lot per month and renting a few and getting some discounts per car is still not cheap. Having stock here does not improve our business, so we do not need many parking spaces but it is still necessary to have some to park our Japanese customers’ cars before selling them at auction or to temporarily keep cars we won before handing them over.

Recently, a number of hourly charged car parks called “Coin Parking” have popped up, especially around business areas near train stations. The “Coin Parking” is a way for small land owners to utilize their unused land as temporary car parks. They vary in size, from some with a capacity for a few cars to others for more than 30. In some areas, there are more than 10 of them within 100m. As for their charges, most say JPY100 per 1/3 hour, JPY500 between 8pm and 12am and back to JPY100 per 1/3 hour after 12am. If it is too far from the train station, they charge JPY1,600 per day.

Actually, when we have too many cars, we sometimes have to use a coin parking site nearby that charges JPY1,600 per day. At first, we thought JPY1,600 per day was not too bad until we had to pay JPY16,000 for 2 days without knowing that they started charging JPY100 per 1/3 hour once it exceeds 24 hours (so, JPY1,600+JPY200×60 minutesJPY20 minutes×24 hours = JPY16,000). Checking the sign, yes, it did mention that excess charge in small writing below the big writing of “JPY1,600 per day”. How were we supposed to notice it? Anyway, we fell into their trap. Now that we all learned about the excess, we get cars out before the time limit and put them in again but if you do not know, you will surely be trapped: it does not seem fair.

However, there seems a change in this charging system lately. For example, the next door car park dropped their charge from JPY100 per 1/3 hour to JPY100 per 1/2 hour. This is also the result of recent high oil prices and many people giving up using their cars. I have not seen the car park full these days. The prices must be the result of the competition. According to some newspapers, car park management companies are reporting that their operating rates are getting lower and they are losing profits. It seems high oil prices are causing unforeseen problems everywhere. But, I personally wish the fee at the next door car park goes below JPY1,600 per day. Do you have any parking issues in your country?

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★ JPCTRADE Home page : http://jpctrade.com/
★ JPCTRADE Blog : http://jpctrade.blogspot.com/

(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