Well, no not really, your import company will handle almost every aspect of the Japanese car importing process for you. They will deal with shipping the car to you, and pass you onto the shipping company who will deal with the shipping side of things.

There are a couple of things you should do in preparation for your car arriving but apart from checking the laws in your region which govern the import of cars, there isn’t much else to do. By being prepared you should be able to cut the worry that you will undoubtedly have about importing a car from Japan. By the time you’ve parted with your money you will have undoubtedly convinced yourself that either the car isn’t going to arrive or when it does it will be completely different to what you expected. If you try and adhere to the following steps, a vast majority of this worry should be alleviated making the whole process seem to run a lot smoother and quicker.

Japanese car import has become increasingly popular over the last few years, and so there are more people and organisations that are there to deal with your car once it arrives and to help you deal with the things you have to.

Bear in mind that whilst your car will have had its MOT test in Japan (which is a very strict test, and applicable to all cars over the age of 3 years old) that doesn’t make it officially road worthy on our soils. The three most important things you need to arrange for when your car comes off the ship is your MOT, your insurance cover note and your tax.

Japanese car import used to make the process of insuring your car very difficult. You couldn’t get insurance if you didn’t have an MOT and you obviously couldn’t get an MOT if you didn’t have a car. Things have changed for the better now. You are legally permitted to drive your car to the test centre so long as you have an appointment on that day. You should also be able to get a cover note from your insurers on the understanding that you are getting the MOT as soon as the car arrives. Once you have your MOT and your cover note you will be able to get your tax and you’re ready to go.