Our timeline of getting a second-hand car in Japan
14 Aug 2025 | #car | #japan | #moneyWe recently bought a second-hand minivan from a Toyota dealership and in this post I’ll share our timeline. Each section will start with the time remaining until we got the car.
General
In Japan when you buy a second hand car, it usually takes up to a month until you can drive it home. I encountered two reasons for this:
1. Shaken (mandatory vehicle inspection) - many people will sell their cars right before it comes up for shaken, and then the dealership will wait with the shaken until someone buys it. So once you sign the contract for the car, only then will the dealership do the shaken. The cost of this is included in the price, and this is actually nice as you will have the full 2 years until the next shaken.
2. Parking certificate - in Tokyo and other major cities, to register a car in your name, you need a certificate from the police showing that you have a parking space big enough for that specific car. This document needs to include the chassis number (車台番号) of the specific car, which means the only possible timeline is something like this:
- Find a car that you like, sign the contract to buy it
- Go to police, get the parking certificate for that specific car (takes a few days)
- Give the parking certificate to the dealer (or let them handle it entire for a fee)
- The dealer completes the shaken, if needed
- The dealer registers the car in your name
- You get the car
Our timeline
Now let’s see how our timeline went.
1 year before: started looking
We decided to get a car, and started looking at various sizes and models. Anytime we would rent a car, we chose one that we could imagine buying, then discussed how it was.
Half year before: checking prices
Once we had some models in mind, we checked prices of new and few years old models, trying to figure out what age/milage combination gives the best cost-performance.
2 months before: visiting dealerships
We visited a nearby Toyota dealership first, then 3 weeks later a Honda one. At this time we were still figuring out the right size for the car to get.
4 weeks before: checking online listings
As we were narrowing down the models we were interested in, and decided the options we wanted (second row AC, double electric sliding doors, parking radar and camera, cruise control, etc.), we could start looking at the online listings near us. We searched across Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama, with the thinking that we can go there on a weekend.
3 weeks before: finding the car
Based on the listings, my wife found a car that seemed like a perfect fit, and called the dealership to make a reservation. They told us that they can’t hold it for multiple days, but if we call them in the morning, they will keep it for us until we visit later that day.
We went there, and checked the car (already prepared specific things we wanted to know). We could even drive the car around the parking lot a bit, but not in traffic (this car had shaken, so that wasn’t the issue, so my guess is they don’t have an insurance for a longer test drive).
We decided to buy it, and went through the paperwork. We arrived at 10:40am, decided to get it around 11:30am, and finished the paperwork by 1:30pm.
We were told that it will take about a month to get the car, especially as 3 weeks from today Obon will start, and the company will close for a full week. So we decided to speed things up and try to get it before Obon.
2 weeks before: finalized the parking
We checked earlier if our mansion had available parking, but only rented it now. They were pretty fast and we could get the keys in a week. They also provided the papers to give to the police for the parking certificate.
1.5 weeks before: apply for the parking certificate
The dealership offered to do this for us, but they would have charged us 18,700 yen for it, and it would have taken longer, so we decided to do it ourselves. The dealership provided us with the form, and prefilled the car specific details (chassis number, size), so we just had to attach the papers about the parking place (from the building management company), and bring it to the police station.
They told us to come back in 3 days for the certificate.
1 week before: picking up the parking certificate
Picked up the parking certificate at the police station and mailed it to the dealership.
2 days before: the car is ready
2 days before picking up the car, the dealership called us that the car was ready to be picked up. They also sent us the shaken certificate (車検証明書). We needed this to finalize the insurance, so this was nice.
On the day
Some final paperwork and explanation, and I got the keys to the car. A minor surprise was that the tank was only about 25% full, so I needed to fill it up myself.