Japan's transport ministry wants tougher penalties for the unlicensed taxis and vans that have proliferated alongside the tourist boom, and it is asking the public to weigh in before it finalizes the change.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's logistics and motor vehicle bureau is soliciting comments from July 30 to August 28, 2026, on a proposal to sharply raise vehicle-suspension penalties for a range of licensing violations. The ministry's accompanying overview cites a rise in unlicensed "white taxi" and "white bus" operations catering to inbound visitors, touting by hired-car drivers at airports and tourist sites, name-lending among taxi and hired-car operators, and unlicensed freight haulage known as "white trucking".
For operators caught running a transport business without the required license under Road Transportation Act Article 4(1), Article 43(1), or the equivalent freight-transport provisions, the first-offense vehicle suspension would rise from 60 days to 120 days, and a second offense would climb from 120 days to 180 days, matching the existing 180-day ceiling for a third violation.
A separate category, violations of Article 78 of the Road Transportation Act covering paid transport using a privately registered vehicle, would see the first-offense suspension double from 40 to 80 days, while a repeat violation would jump straight to 180 days, up from 80 days today.
| Violation type | Current suspension | Proposed suspension |
|---|---|---|
| Operating without a required license (unlicensed passenger or freight transport) | 60 days (1st offense), 120 days (2nd), 180 days (3rd and beyond) | 120 days (1st offense), 180 days (2nd and beyond) |
| Article 78 violations: paid transport using a privately registered vehicle | 40 days (1st offense), 80 days (2nd), 120 days (3rd and beyond) | 80 days (1st offense), 180 days (2nd and beyond) |
| Hired-car touting, permit-condition breaches, or lending a taxi/hired-car license | 30-day business suspension (30 penalty points) | 60-day business suspension (60 penalty points) |
For conventional taxi and hired-car companies, the ministry proposes doubling the maximum business suspension for touting, breaching permit conditions, or lending a company's taxi or hired-car license to another operator, from 30 days (30 penalty points) to 60 days (60 penalty points).
Comments must be submitted in Japanese, either through the e-Gov online form, by email to the ministry's passenger transport policy division, or by post to its Tokyo office. Submitters must give their name and address, or for a company or organization its name and location, plus contact details such as a phone number or email address. The ministry says it cannot respond to submissions individually and will use them only as a reference when it makes a final decision.
If the ministry proceeds as drafted, it expects to issue the formal notice and bring the new penalty schedule into effect around late September 2026. The e-Gov listing, filed under case number 155260924 in the land-transport category, names no specific violator or pending enforcement action; it describes only the proposed rule change.
The message for taxi, hired-car, and trucking operators is straightforward: if the ministry finalizes the rule as written, the cost of running without a license, or handing your permit to someone else, is about to roughly double.