Japanese export certificate translation: a free template you fill in yourself

A Japanese export certificate already has English on it. Next to each box, the transport ministry prints a label such as "Maker's serial number" or "Fixed Number". Those labels are official, but they're not how a buyer, a DVLA form or an inspector would put it. The shaken certificate, the card a registered car carries, has no English at all.

This page is a working sheet for both. Each box is listed with the Japanese as printed, the export certificate's own English label, what the box means, and space for your car's value. Our own car's values are filled in as the example. Below the table: how to turn Japanese dates into Western ones, the words you'll meet inside the boxes, and what six governments say about these papers, quoted from their own pages.

It isn't a certified translation. If an office asks for one, that's what you need, and whether a sheet like this is accepted is up to that office.

The boxes on both papers

The layout below follows Japan's official forms: form 12 for the export certificate (export temporary deregistration certificate) and form 18 for the shaken certificate, in the ministry's ordinance on registration and inspection forms. The example column is our own car, a Toyota Prius α, read from its shaken certificate. It hasn't been exported, so the export-only boxes are blank on our side.

To fill it in on paper, print this page and write your car's values in the last column.

This sheet isn't a certified translation. It's for reading the papers and copying the values out.

A translation tells you what the papers say, not what the car is like. If the papers check out and you'd like the car itself seen, send us the listing.

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Two things stand out once it's laid out like this.

The day of first registration isn't in the first registration box. Both forms print the year and the month only. On our car, the exact day, 22 August 2012, turns up in one place: a weight tax line in the remarks of the inspection record sheet. If an office wants the full date of first registration, that's where it was on ours. Whether an export certificate's remarks carry the same line, we haven't seen for ourselves. The record sheet is explained line by line on the Japanese inspection record sheet.

A dash means "doesn't apply", not "missing". Our card prints a dash for the maximum load and for two of the four axle weights. Copy it as "not applicable" rather than leaving the box blank, so nobody thinks you skipped it.

Turning Japanese dates into Western ones

Japanese papers count years by era. Our card's first registration box reads Heisei 24, August: the 24th year of the Heisei era, in August. To convert:

Japanese	Era	How to convert	Watch for
昭和	Shōwa	Add 1925 to the year	Shōwa 64 lasted only until 7 January 1989
平成	Heisei	Add 1988	Heisei began on 8 January 1989 and ended on 30 April 2019. Heisei 31 runs from January to April 2019 only
令和	Reiwa	Add 2018	Reiwa began on 1 May 2019. Reiwa 1 is 2019 from May onwards
元年	gannen	Year 1 of the era	Written instead of the number 1
年・月・日	nen, gatsu, nichi	Year, month, day	Follow the numbers, in that order

So Heisei 24, August is August 2012, and Reiwa 7, 17 June is 17 June 2025. The start dates are the Cabinet's own: the two orders that changed the era name, in 1989 and 2019.

Words you'll meet inside the boxes

Japanese	Romanised	English	In which box
普通	futsū	Standard	Vehicle class
小型	kogata	Small	Vehicle class
軽	kei	Kei (light vehicle)	Vehicle class
大型特殊・小型特殊	ōgata tokushu, kogata tokushu	Large and small special vehicles	Vehicle class
乗用	jōyō	Passenger (10 seats or fewer)	Use
乗合	noriai	Bus (11 seats or more)	Use
貨物	kamotsu	Goods	Use
特種	tokushu	Special purpose	Use
自家用	jikayō	Private	Private or commercial
事業用	jigyōyō	Commercial	Private or commercial
ステーションワゴン	sutēshon wagon	Station wagon (estate)	Body type, on ours
ガソリン	gasorin	Petrol	Fuel, on ours
ハイブリッド車	haiburiddo-sha	Hybrid vehicle	Remarks, on ours
走行距離計表示値	sōkō kyorikei hyōjichi	Odometer reading	Remarks
旧走行距離計表示値	kyū sōkō kyorikei hyōjichi	Previous odometer reading	Remarks

The five vehicle classes are the ones named in Japan's Road Transport Vehicle Act. The four uses, with their seat counts, come from the transport ministry's directive on classifying vehicles by use. The odometer words are from the ministry's list of remarks, and from our own record sheet. What two odometer readings can and can't tell you is on Japanese import mileage check.

What each government says about these papers

These are the governments' own words, read on 4 October 2026. They tell you which boxes get used. They don't tell you whether your car qualifies, and we don't either. That's for the office in your country.

Country	What its own guidance says	What that points you to
United Kingdom	DVLA's leaflet INF106 (October 2025) asks for the original non-UK registration document, which you don't get back. It sets the age-related number from the full date of first registration if the document shows it. If it doesn't, DVLA wants evidence of the month and year of manufacture, and without evidence of age the car gets a Q plate. The leaflet doesn't mention translations	The first registration box (no day), and the build date question on Japanese car build dates
Ireland	Revenue's VRT manual lists the CO2 evidence it accepts for a car from outside the EU, including previous registration documents, and says "All the above documentary evidence must have English translations"	The remarks and any fuel economy figures. See importing a car from Japan to Ireland
New Zealand	NZTA's entry certification manual says the make, model and sub-model must be taken from the de-registration or previous registration documents. For a car from Japan it records the model code, the 4-digit variant (9999 if the certificate doesn't show one) and the year of first registration. Because export certificates give the engine size in litres to two decimal places, it says to use a more accurate source, such as the maker's plate, where there is one	The model code, the first registration box and the engine size, and, as we read it, the category number for the variant. See importing a car from Japan to New Zealand
Australia	The department says a build date usually has a month and a year, and that evidence of it can include a deregistration certificate in some countries	The first registration and build date. See importing a car from Japan to Australia
United States	CBP lists the foreign registration among the documents needed to clear a car. Its page doesn't mention translations; your state's DMV has its own rules	The whole certificate. See importing a car from Japan to the USA
Canada	The CBSA checks that the vehicle and the ownership documents match, such as the bill of sale and the export certificate. The memorandum we read doesn't mention translations	The chassis number. See importing a car from Japan to Canada

One line in New Zealand's manual turns the model code into something else: for a car from Japan with a prefix on its model code, the emissions test regime is recorded as J plus that prefix. On our model code, DAA-ZVW41W, that would read JDAA. It's a good example of why the model code is worth copying exactly, hyphen and all.

How to use the template

1. Get a clear photo of the whole paper, not a crop. For an export certificate, ask for the original's photo, not a copy; our page on the Japanese export certificate shows how a copy is marked.
2. Go down the table box by box. Match each Japanese label on your paper to the first column, then copy the value into the last one, exactly as printed.
3. Convert every date with the era table, and write both: "Heisei 24, August (August 2012)".
4. Write "not applicable" for a dash, and "covered" where the seller has hidden something.
5. Read the remarks separately. They're the box most likely to carry dates and odometer readings, and the one with no English label.
6. Check the chassis number against the stamping on the car before you rely on anything else on the sheet (Japanese chassis numbers).
7. Ask the office you're dealing with what form of translation it accepts, before you pay anyone for one.

What this template can't do

• Stand in for a certified translation. It's a reading aid. If a translation has to be certified, the office decides who can certify it.
• Tell you whether a car qualifies anywhere. Age rules, emissions and type approval are each country's call.
• Read the remarks for every car. The ministry's list has dozens of possible items. We've given the ones on our own papers and the odometer lines.
• Tell you about the car. Every box here is registration data. None of it says anything about rust, repairs or how the car drives. Our page on the Japanese shaken certificate covers what a valid shaken does and doesn't mean.

What isn't in the table, and why

• The export notification certificate. A car that was already off the road gets a different paper, the export notification certificate, on its own form (form 13). We've laid out form 12 only. Most of the boxes should look familiar, but we haven't checked them one by one.
• Kei cars. Cars of 660 cc and under have their own versions of these papers. They aren't covered here.
• Every possible remark. The ministry's list runs to dozens of items. We've put in the ones on our own papers and the odometer lines, because those are the ones we've read.

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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