Vehicle Registration Plates of Japan - Appearance

Appearance

Class Engine (cc displacement) Plate color Text color Plate dimensions
Private vehicle >660 White Green Medium or large
Commercial vehicle >660 Green White Medium or large
Lightweight Private (Keicar) <660 Yellow Black Medium
Lightweight Commercial <660 Black Yellow Medium
Microcar 0–49 Sky Blue* Blue Extra small
2 wheel 0–49 White* Blue Extra small
2 wheel 50–89 Yellow* Blue Extra small
2 wheel 90–124 Pink* Blue Extra small
2 wheel 125–249 White Green Small
2 wheel ≥250 White, green border Green Small

* These plates are issued by municipal governments.

Large
44x22 cm (17.3x8.7 inch)
(for over 8 tons vehicle, or capacity of 30 people or more)
Medium
33x16.5 cm (13x6.5 inch)
Small
23x12.5 cm (9x4.9 inch)
Extra small
about 20x10 cm (7.8x3.9 inch)
(differs according to each municipality)
Private vehicles Commercial vehicles
Compact or Large vehicles and motorbikes (displacements <250 cm³)
keicar
2-wheeled vehicle =>250 cm³

Please note that, to avoid any claims of invasion of privacy, the artist of these pictures has deliberately selected an invalid combination of characters.

The illustration shows what a plate might look like. The top line contains the name of the issuing office (Tama, shown, is in Tokyo) and a vehicle class code. The bottom line contains a hiragana character and a four-digit serial number divided into two groups of two digits separated by a hyphen. Any leading zeros are replaced by centered dots.

White plates can have the following hiragana:

さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆよらりるろ

and for rental vehicles

れわ

Green plates can have the following hiragana:

あいうえかきくけこを

A license plate in Japan thus follows this format: KK?*H##-## (e.g., 足立500き21-41), where KK is the name of the issuing office in kanji, H is a hiragana, ? is a 5 for vehicles less than 2000 cc and a 3 for vehicles greater than 2000 cc (other numbers are less common—1 for large trucks, 2 for buses, etc.), * is a number from 0 to 99 (pre-1971 license plates will omit this), and # is a number from 0* to 9 (*leading zeros are replaced by centered dots).

Read more about this topic:  Vehicle Registration Plates Of Japan

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