The Japanese shaken record sheet: what one page tells you about a car's history
Sources checked 4 October 2026
Since 2023, the Japanese shaken certificate has been a small card with an IC tag, and a lot of what used to be printed on it now isn't. The details still exist. They sit on the tag, and you can see them on a separate sheet, the inspection record sheet (jidōsha kensa-shō kiroku jikō), or in the transport ministry's free reader app. If you're buying a car that's still in Japan, that sheet is worth more than the card. It carries the date the shaken runs out, the odometer readings at past tests, and a few lines that add up to a short, dated history of the car.
Below is the sheet for our own car, a Toyota Prius α, line by line. The card itself is covered on our page about how to read a Japanese shaken certificate.
The top of the sheet: the dates
The first section has the dates that matter most to a buyer:
| Box | On our sheet | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Date recorded | 17 June 2025 | The day this sheet's information was recorded. The sheet itself says it shows the information as at that point |
| Registration or issue date | 17 June 2025 | When the current certificate was issued |
| Month of first registration | August 2012 | The month the car was first registered in Japan. The remarks, below, give the exact day |
| Date the shaken runs out | 23 August 2026 | Not printed on the card. This sheet, or the app, is where you find it |
Look at that last line again. Our sheet was recorded in June 2025, and the date it gives has since passed. Anything that happened to the car after 17 June 2025 isn't on this sheet. So when a seller sends one, check the "date recorded" at the top, and if it's old, ask for a newer one or a screenshot from the app.
The second section is the owner and the user. On ours we've covered the owner, and the user's boxes are printed as asterisks. The third section repeats what's on the card, box for box: the model code (DAA-ZVW41W), the engine (2ZR-5JM), the weights, the size, and the type designation and category numbers. If you've read the card, there's nothing new there.
The remarks: a short history in a few lines
The fourth section, the remarks, is the part most buyers skip and the part we'd read first. Japan's transport ministry publishes the list of items that can appear in it: some are always printed, most only where they apply. Here's ours, in the order it's printed:
| Line on our sheet | What it means | Item on the ministry's list |
|---|---|---|
| Mie; transfer of ownership; change of registration area (in) | The office that issued the certificate, and the procedure that produced it: the car changed owner and moved into Mie | The issuing office and the kind of procedure are always printed |
| FY2012 tax rules: new registration 22 August 2012, exempt / continuing inspection 24 July 2015, 50% reduction | Weight tax relief at its first registration, and again at its first shaken, three years later. It also gives you two exact dates | Weight tax information, where it applies |
| Fuel economy lines: meets the FY2020 standard by 140%, and older standards; WLTC figure not calculated | The Japanese fuel economy standards it meets. There's no CO2 figure in g/km | Fuel economy information |
| New odometer reading 155,100 km (29 July 2024); old odometer reading 108,700 km (8 August 2022) | The readings at the last two tests | Odometer readings |
| Hybrid; 1998 noise rules, close-range exhaust noise limit 96 dB; acceleration noise rule applies | Notes on the drivetrain and the noise rules it was approved under | Noise information |
| Test type: designated garage; servicing at the test: written in the record book; presented by: a designated garage | How the car was serviced and tested at the last shaken | Test type, servicing, how presented |
Put the dates together and one sheet gives you a timeline: first registered on 22 August 2012, first shaken on 24 July 2015, 108,700 km on 8 August 2022, 155,100 km on 29 July 2024, and a change of owner on 17 June 2025. None of it came from a paid report.
The odometer lines are explained on Japanese import mileage check, and the servicing lines on the Japanese service record book. What the fuel economy lines mean for Irish VRT, where a missing CO2 figure costs real money, is on importing a car from Japan to Ireland.
What isn't on our sheet, and what that tells you
The ministry's list has items that only print where they apply. On our sheet, these are absent:
- A date of manufacture. The list has a line for it, printed where it applies. Ours doesn't have one, so the build month still isn't on paper. See Japanese car build dates.
- A rental mark. The list has an item for cars registered for hire. It isn't on ours.
- Disaster-affected vehicle information. The list has an item for it. It isn't on ours.
- A highest odometer reading. That line appears only if a reading has ever gone down at a test. It isn't on ours.
An absent line tells you less than a present one. The sheet describes the car as registered on the day it was recorded, so it won't necessarily show what a car was used for under an earlier owner. Whether a used car was a rental is something a member dealer has to state anyway; see Japan car history checks.
What the sheet can't tell you
- How many owners the car has had. Ours shows the latest change of owner, not the ones before. The full list is on the detailed registration record, which has to be requested in Japan; Japan car history checks explains how.
- Where the car lived before. Our sheet names the office that issued it. It doesn't say where the car was registered before that.
- Anything after the date recorded. It's a snapshot.
- The car's condition. Every line is about papers, tests and tax. Nothing on it says what the underside or the strut tops look like.
Our own sheet is a good example. It's tidy and complete, and it says nothing about the rust under our car, which you can see in photos of the underside of my own car.
The sheet gives you the dated history. If you'd like someone to look at the part it can't cover, send us the listing.
How to get the sheet from abroad
- Ask the seller for the inspection record sheet, or the app's PDF. While the car is registered in Japan, the owner or dealer can read the certificate's IC tag with the transport ministry's free app and save the record as a PDF.
- Check the "date recorded" at the top. If it's more than a few months old, ask for a newer one.
- Read the date the shaken runs out. If a listing says "shaken until" a month, this is where you confirm it.
- Read the remarks from the top: the issuing office and the procedure, any tax lines with dates, the odometer readings, and the servicing at the last test.
- Line up the dates: first registration, past tests, the odometer readings and the listing's mileage. They should run in order.
- Ask about anything you can't place, line by line. A dealer can tell you what a remark refers to.
- Ask the seller to cover the owner's name and address before sending it. You don't need them, and the sheet is still useful without them.
If the car has already been deregistered for export, ask for the export certificate as well: its remarks box carries earlier odometer readings too. See the Japanese export certificate.
Questions buyers ask
Is this the same as the shaken certificate?
No. The certificate is the card the car has to carry. The record sheet shows what's on the card's IC tag, including the details that are no longer printed on the card.
Can it tell me if the car was a rental?
Only partly. The ministry's list has a rental item, printed where it applies, but the sheet reflects the car as currently registered. Ask the dealer directly, and see Japan car history checks.
Sources
All checked on 4 October 2026.
- Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), Items printed in the remarks section of the electronic vehicle inspection certificate (in Japanese): which items are always printed and which only where they apply, including the issuing office, the kind of procedure, weight tax, fuel economy, the rental item, disaster-affected vehicles, the date of manufacture, the odometer readings and the servicing items
- MLIT, About the electronic vehicle inspection certificate (in Japanese): what's printed on the card and what's kept on the IC tag, including the expiry date
- MLIT, Electronic vehicle inspection certificate FAQ (in Japanese): the free reader app
- Our own car's inspection record sheet (jidōsha kensa-shō kiroku jikō), recorded 17 June 2025, photographed in October 2026
The sheet is easy to ask for in Japanese and easy to misread in a hurry. With a Remote Check, we ask the dealer for a recent sheet or the app's PDF and translate it line by line. If the dealer agrees and the car is somewhere we can reach, an On-Site Vehicle Viewing lets us look at the car the sheet describes.