Japan export certificate: what it tells you about a car, and what it doesn't

A Japanese export certificate is the paper that takes a car off the Japanese register so it can leave the country. Japan's customs check it at export, and importing countries can ask for it too. It's printed in Japanese with English labels on each box. Read it properly and it confirms which car you're buying, when it was first registered, and some of its odometer history. But it's an administrative paper. It's issued when a car is going abroad, not when somebody has looked at it.

What an export certificate is

There are two versions, depending on where the car was on the register:

• Export temporary deregistration certificate (yushutsu massho kari toroku shomeisho). For a car that's still registered. The owner applies at a transport bureau office and hands in the number plates.
• Export notification certificate (yushutsu yotei todokede shomeisho). For a car that was already off the road (temporarily deregistered). The owner tells the transport bureau the car is going abroad and hands back the deregistration certificate.

For the first of these, the application also needs the owner's registered seal and a certificate for it, or a letter of authority stamped with that seal.

Both are headed "Export Certificate" in English. According to Tokyo Customs, the exporter has to show one of them to customs when declaring the car for export, and either can be issued up to six months before the planned export date. Kei cars (660 cc and under) have their own version.

What you can read from it

New Zealand's transport agency publishes samples of Japanese export certificates for its vehicle inspectors, including one from 2023. On those samples, the boxes include:

• The chassis number, model code and engine model. These should match the stamping on the car and the listing.
• The year and month of first registration. This is what the paper records. The year in an advert may be different.
• The owner, and the last owner before deregistration. On the 2023 sample, the owner is a finance company and the last owner is another company.
• Earlier odometer readings, each with a date, in the remarks box.
• The planned export date and the date of application.
• Size, weight, seating and body type.

A photocopy is easy to tell from the original. New Zealand's samples include a black-and-white copy of a certificate with the word COPY showing six times across the sheet.

Matching it to the car

The chassis number, the model code and the engine model are the boxes to match against the car. Many Japanese cars carry the same details on a model plate, often in the engine bay, as well as the chassis number stamped into the body. The chassis number on the certificate should be the same as the frame number on the plate, and so should the engine model. Our page on Japan car history checks shows the plate on our own car and what each box on it means. If a box on the certificate doesn't match the plate or the stamping on the body, ask why before you go any further.

What it can't tell you

• What the car is like. The certificate records registration details. Getting one is a paperwork procedure. Nobody has to look at the body, the underside or the engine.
• The mileage on the day it was issued. The readings in the remarks box come from earlier records, with their dates. The car may have been driven after the last one.
• What happened between deregistration and shipping. A certificate can be issued up to six months before the car leaves. Where it sits and how it's stored in that time isn't on the paper.
• Repair or flood history. Those aren't fields on the certificate. See repair history and flood cars for what a Japanese listing has to say about them.
• That the paper belongs to the car in the photos. Only comparing the chassis number on the paper with the stamping on the car tells you that. See Japanese chassis numbers.

It's also a different thing from an auction sheet. The export certificate is issued by the Japanese government. An auction sheet is the auction house's own record of the car on the day it was sold.

An export certificate tells you a car is cleared to leave Japan. It doesn't tell you the car is worth shipping.

If the paperwork checks out but you'd like to know about the car itself before it's on a ship, send us the listing. We'll tell you what's realistic to check at the dealer.

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How to check the one you're sent

1. Ask for a clear photo of the whole certificate, not a crop. Ask the seller to cover the owner's name and address if they want to. You need the chassis number, the model code, the first registration date and the remarks box.
2. Compare the chassis number character by character with photos of the stamping and the model plate on the car, and with the listing.
3. Check the first registration date against the year in the advert.
4. Read the odometer readings and dates in the remarks box, and compare them with a dated photo of the odometer. The reading should only have gone up since.
5. Check the planned export date. If it's months away, ask where the car will be kept until then.
6. Ask who keeps the original. Ask when it'll be sent to you or your agent, because your own country's registration office may ask for it. A photocopy of the paper shows the word COPY.
7. Check what your own country needs. Requirements differ by country. Start with our guide to importing a car from Japan.

A car that left Japan legally will have had one of these certificates, because customs ask for it when the car is declared for export. If a seller says there isn't one, ask why.

If a seller can only send a partial or blurred image of the certificate, ask for a better one before you pay.

Questions buyers ask

The seller says the car's history has been checked. Does that cover its time in Japan?

Ask what was checked. Records in your own country only start when the car was registered there. The Japanese side is on the export certificate, so ask for a copy and read the earlier odometer readings and their dates in the remarks box.

Written by Yoshiaki Sagara, a paintless dent repair and detailing technician in Japan. He looks at cars for overseas buyers through Ninja Desk Japan. About us

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