Cars in Japan: Does Anime Have The Right Idea?
 

How common is it to have cars in Japan? Is it like a limo in America oe is it common?

Slight side note: I've seen how trains are in Tokyo, man, must suck being so cramped in there . . .XD

Cars are very common in Japan. Why would you think otherwise. Urban dwellers oftentimes can live without a car and simply use public transportation, but once one starts a family it gets harder to live without one.

Are people still associating a couple train lines in Tokyo during rush hour with the entire Japanese train system.



Oftentimes it looks just like this.

Car is a essencial tool for most Japan family. It is useful travel tool to take people to work, go to school or other ourside entertainment.

　　

The horizontal axis　　　GDP per capita
The vertical　　axis 　　 Number of cars per 1,000 population
日本 　Japan
ドイツ　Germany
米国　 USA

Trains in Tokyo are fine. People are almost always very quiet and they are respectful of your space, despite what they say on television. I've never had any bad experiences.

It depends on where you live. My house is in the countryside, and there is not much in the way of train or bus transportation, so owning a car is a necessity. My GF lives in Metro Tokyo, within walking distance of 2 train stations and 1 subway station, not to mention the bus stop in front of her building where buses stop every 5 minutes. Obviously, she doesn't really need a car.

I would like to add though that America's infrastructure and size kind of forces people to own cars, since the wealth in America is very unevenly distributed. Not to mention in Japan, (from what I see) the vast majority of cars are relatively new, whereas in America you will see tons of old beat up POS cars all over the place.

I always want to ask this. Is this for real??

YouTube - Japan MRT vs Singapore MRT

In my view, Japan is a one car per family society. The US a one car per person society. This is a generalization, of course, but it seems to fit quite well.

The costs of owning a car (taxes, parking, gasoline) in Japan outweigh it`s value for an individual in most cases. This is particularly true in the inner city, where the costs can outweigh it`s usefulness even if it IS a family.

I live right on the outskirts of a huge city. In our building there is only one family out of around 40 who own 2 cars. And at the same time I think there are maybe two families who don`t own a car at all. People who use cars for their job use a company vehicle, not their own. Even out in the deep countryside - where it`s an hour walk to a bus stop for a bus that comes every 4 hours... You still only see around 1.5 cars per family. Every other family seems to have 2 cars, but nothing more than that unless you own a company and have another for work.

Back when I lived in the US, everyone in the house of legal driving age who had a license had their own car. It was the same for pretty much everyone around. 4 cars in the driveway and maybe more in the garage seemed a pretty normal sight.

I have a car. A little Mitsubishi Minica.

Cars statistics - countries compared - NationMaster

This is of course very old (1999), but I guess it gives a rough idea! I wonder if there is more recent similar data.

The latest data I saw for America, was an average 2.8xx cars per household! So, I guess it confirms half of Nyronins post. I can't remember seeing any data for Japan.

overall prefectural and national date (March 2008 )
Nunber of cars per 100 households


national average　1.095 per household
lowest Tokyo 　0.510 per household
highest Fukui 　1.751 per household

Anime seems to scrable many peoples perception of Japan, hence me not watching it. But cars are very important if you don't live in the city side. Usually, the city sides are the business areas, such as how Manhattan is not the best place to park or drive to since there is a lot of busses and trains and not much parking spaces, same applies in Japan. Only, I think it is more usual to have a car in Japan than in the USA simply because everything is very scattered in Japan. Everybody thinks at first it is like a giant metropolis, it is... Only in just that one specific place like Osaka, or Tokyo city, but that's about it. Other cities are very smaller, nothing like New York size. Some places have NO trains, just busses, and they take forever to come because not many people may use the path you need to get to to go to your home if you live in the outskirts.

When I visited Japan, there were cars every where all the time.

The issue is the space itself, depending where you live. In Tokyo, before you buy a car, you have to go to the police station and bring proof that you have SPACE (like parking) for a car. If you don't have the paper from the police, you can't buy a car. I thought that was quite interesting.

Damn, I am glad I don't live in Tokyo. But I do know parking in Tokyo is ridiculous lol.

Yes, indeed. Lol I had a hard time figuring out where all the cars I saw in the streets were coming from, and where they lived and parked. But personally in a city like Tokyo, I wouldn't even bother getting a driver's licence, their metro system is amazing!

Actually, you have to do this everywhere in Japan. It`s part of the normal paperwork for owning a car. Nothing to do with Tokyo. :)
You need to demonstrate that you have a space in which to park the car and that you have permission to park it there.

Oooh! I see! Thanks for the correction~

The tour guide that told us all this only mentioned Tokyo, so I figured it was only in the city what with some 12 million people living there... Lol

Forgot to mention getting a license is about $2,000-$3,000. My wife drives me, I have no shame, because we're probably going to move around between Japan and USA a lot anyway. We want to save all the money we can... Or I heard there's a way I could get a license back home in New York, then get an international drivers license, but I am not too sure about it. I do know how to drive though, but I am not about to break any laws here.

One of my japanese friends here has one from Japan, she's been travelling around the world, she was in Australia and USA, now she's in Canada, working with a Visa. She has a car from work and drives around the city a lot. When I asked her she told me she has an international driver's lisence.

And if I remember correctly, here in Canada it's CAA (car/rental/insurance company) from whom you can request an international driver's lisence.

Only issue is Japan and Canada don't drive on the same side of the street, I didn't drive while visiting Tokyo, but I was really confused the first day out and about.

Super quoted for truth.

My uncle in law in the next house (and boy do I mean the next house, same driveway lol,) he has 2 cars. One for work/family outing, and other as back up/wife.

Re: Parking

I rent a space from the supermarket in the same building as my apartment building. As far as I am aware, out of about fifty or so apartments, maybe 15 of us have cars. And I live in rural Kyoto. I didn't need a car last year, but I kept it anyway. Good thing, as I was transferred to another school that is thirty minutes away by car from my apartment, and has no train access.

Most people in my building work nearby, or can take the bus that stops in front of the apartment building.

This is not an option for me consistently.

I live in the suburbs of western Tokyo, and neither my husband or I have a car, nor do we feel we need one. I like driving back in my home country, but I have no desire to drive here and am glad it isn't necessary- the trains, subways etc get me everywhere I want to go (trains run every 2 minutes at rush hour through my station). I don't have to worry about parking, petrol, car inspection, registration, traffic jams, repairs and many other things that I had to worry about and spend money on in my home country.

Somebody above (who I believe doesn't live in Japan) said they were glad they don't live in Tokyo because parking is at a premium here- when you live here it takes a bit of a shift in your way of thinking at first, but many people come to like the fact that they don't need a car. You get a lot more exercise too, walking to the train station is good for you!