License Conversion Practice Questions | 21 Practice Questions with Answers for the 50-Question Knowledge Test [2026 Edition]

First, try just three questions to test yourself. The answers are in the next section.

Q A.　When a police officer at an intersection is directing traffic with hand signals that differ from the traffic light, you must obey the traffic light.

Q B.　At an intersection with a flashing yellow light, you are always required to slow down.

Q C.　At a crosswalk and within 30 meters before it, both overtaking (changing lanes to pass) and passing without changing lanes are prohibited.

Since October 2025, the knowledge test for license conversion has been 50 questions with a 90% passing score. The pass rate is 42.8%. Out of every 10 people who take it, nearly 6 fail.

The questions in this article are actual questions from Drivey's License Conversion course. The full course has 946 questions, and we are publishing 21 of them here with answers and explanations.

*The information in this article is current as of September 2026. The system changes. Before you apply, always check with the driver's license center of the prefecture where you will take the test.

Answers to the three questions

Q A　Answer: × (False)

When a police officer's hand signals or instructions differ from the traffic light, you obey the officer's hand signals or instructions. Remember it this way: people take priority over machines.

Q B　Answer: × (False)

A flashing yellow light means "you may proceed with caution." It does not require you to slow down. The deciding factor is whether you caught the word "always."

Q C　Answer: ○ (True)

Overtaking and passing just before a crosswalk are prohibited in principle. Note that the only places where even passing without changing lanes is prohibited are crosswalks and bicycle crossings. Remember them as special locations.

👉 In all three questions, the mistake has nothing to do with reading Japanese. Q A is about who has priority, Q B is the trap of absolute wording, and Q C is a distance number. Almost every reason people fail the knowledge test falls into one of these three types.

[Important] There are no official past exams

If you searched for "license conversion past exam questions" and found nothing: past questions from the knowledge test are not published. The fact that you can't find them is not a problem with how you searched.

However, the test scope is fixed. It covers the basics of Japanese traffic rules: traffic lights and signs, right of way, slowing down and stopping, no-stopping and no-parking zones, and protecting pedestrians. Since the scope is fixed, you can prepare with questions built backward from it.

The 21 questions below are not actual past exam questions either. They are questions Drivey created to match the test scope. We want to be honest about that.

People fail because of rule differences between Japan and their home country, not Japanese ability

The knowledge test is available in 20 languages. If you can take it in your native language, Japanese ability should not matter. Even so, 57% fail.

The reason is that driving that is correct in your home country can be a violation in Japan. It's not a question of which country is right. The rules are simply different from country to country. And where the differences show up depends on which country you come from.

"Be careful, Japan drives on the left" does not apply to everyone

Drives on the left, same as Japan	Indonesia / Thailand / Nepal / Sri Lanka / Bangladesh / India / Malaysia / Singapore
Drives on the right, opposite of Japan	Vietnam / China / Philippines / Myanmar / Cambodia / Mongolia / Uzbekistan / South Korea / Brazil / Peru

Drivers from Indonesia, Thailand, and Nepal don't make mistakes about driving on the left. Their countries drive on the left to begin with. Telling them "Japan drives on the left" does nothing to help them prepare.

The differences appear for drivers from Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Myanmar, and similar countries. The direction signs face, how wide your right and left turns are, and which way you go around a roundabout are all mirrored.

Drivers from Myanmar face one more complication

On December 6, 1970, Myanmar switched from driving on the left to driving on the right overnight. It was a sudden decree by the military government at the time.

Yet most of the cars on the road are used cars imported from Japan, still with right-hand drive. In other words, on Myanmar's roads a combination rare anywhere in the world has continued: "sit in a right-hand-drive car and drive on the right side of the road."

In Japan it is "sit in a right-hand-drive car and drive on the left side of the road."

👉 The driver's seat is in the same place, but only the side of the road is reversed. This is easier to get confused by than "everything is reversed." Because sitting in the car feels the same as at home, your body remembers how you drove at home. If you are from Myanmar, work through the four questions in section A below deliberately and with extra care.

18 practice questions

A. Which side of the road ── where drivers from right-hand-traffic countries slip up

Q1.　In a roundabout, you drive around to the right (clockwise).

Answer: × (False)　In Japanese roundabouts, vehicles go around to the left (counterclockwise). In right-hand-traffic countries you go the opposite way, so here your body's memory becomes a wrong answer.

Q2.　On a road without marked lanes, you drive near the center of the road in principle.

Answer: × (False)　On a road with no lane markings, the rule is to keep to the left side of the road. Driving near the center raises the risk of colliding with oncoming vehicles.

Q3.　On a one-way road, you must always drive on the left side of the road and may never drive on the right side.

Answer: × (False)　There is no oncoming traffic on a one-way road, so you may also drive on the right side if it is safe. People who memorized "drive on the left" mechanically are the ones who get this wrong. It's a classic case of a rule having exceptions.

Q4.　When overtaking a streetcar, you must pass on its left side.

Answer: ○ (True)　In principle, you overtake a streetcar by passing on its left. If your home country has no streetcars, this question is confusing the first time you see it.

B. Crosswalks and pedestrians ── the biggest source of lost points

Q5.　If a pedestrian is about to cross at a crosswalk, you may wait for the pedestrian to stop and then proceed.

Answer: × (False)　The moment a pedestrian is "about to cross," the vehicle must come to a complete stop. "The pedestrian looks like they'll stop, so the car goes first" is not allowed. Driving that is accepted in many other countries is a violation in Japan.

Q6.　Even when it is unclear whether a pedestrian is about to cross at a crosswalk, you should proceed at a speed that allows you to stop immediately in order to stay safe.

Answer: ○ (True)　Whether or not you can see a pedestrian, slow down on the assumption that "someone might be there." The rule is built on the idea that stopping only after you see someone is too late.

Q7.　If a vehicle is stopped just before a crosswalk, you may slow down and drive past the side of that vehicle as long as you confirm there are no pedestrians about to cross.

Answer: × (False)　A pedestrian may be hidden behind the stopped vehicle. Slowing down is not enough. You must come to a complete stop before moving ahead of it. This is a situation where many actual fatal accidents happen.

Q8.　If a pedestrian is walking where there is no crosswalk, it is acceptable to obstruct that pedestrian.

Answer: × (False)　Pedestrians have priority even where there is no crosswalk. Japan's Road Traffic Act is designed to give pedestrians priority regardless of location.

C. Slow driving ── the definition of the word itself is tested

Q9.　"Slow driving" (jokō) means a speed of about 10 km/h or less at which the vehicle can stop within 1 meter if the brakes are applied.

Answer: ○ (True)　Slow driving means "a speed at which you can stop immediately." The guideline is roughly 10 km/h or less with a braking distance of 1 meter or less. It is not the same as simply "driving slowly."

Q10.　Near the top of a steep uphill slope you must slow down, but a steep downhill slope is not a place where you must slow down.

Answer: × (False)　A steep downhill slope is also a place where you must slow down. Near the top of an uphill slope your view is poor, and on a steep downhill slope you pick up speed and the brakes are less effective. The reasons are different, but you slow down in both.

D. Railroad crossings

Q11.　At a railroad crossing, you come to a complete stop, turn down the car stereo, open the window, and check left and right for safety with your eyes and ears.

Answer: ○ (True)　You check with your ears, not just your eyes. Remember the whole procedure, including opening the window. How railroad crossings are handled varies greatly from country to country.

Q12.　When passing through a railroad crossing behind the vehicle in front, you do not need to stop if you can confirm it is safe.

Answer: × (False)　Regardless of whether the vehicle in front stopped and checked, each vehicle stops and checks on its own, one at a time.

E. Stopping and parking ── one different number flips the answer

Q13.　At a crosswalk or bicycle crossing and within 5 meters before or after its edge, you may neither park nor stop.

Answer: ○ (True)　For crosswalks it is 5 meters before and after.

Q14.　A railroad crossing and the area within 5 meters before or after its edge is a no-stopping, no-parking zone.

Answer: × (False)　For railroad crossings it is 10 meters before and after. It is true that stopping and parking are prohibited there. Only the number is wrong.

👉 Compare Q13 and Q14. Both say "no stopping or parking within 5 meters before or after," yet one is ○ and the other is ×. The test is full of questions that trip you up on the difference between 5, 10, and 30 meters, so memorize the number for each location.

F. Yellow lights ── two questions with the same content and different wording

Q15.　A yellow light means, in principle, that you stop at the stopping position. It does not give you permission to proceed.

Answer: ○ (True)　Yellow does not mean "you can get through if you hurry." The rule is to stop.

Q16.　When the light turns yellow, you must not cross the stop line and proceed under any circumstances.

Answer: × (False)　The rule is to stop, but if you are already close to the stopping position and cannot stop safely, you may continue through. This statement erases that exception, so it is false.

👉 Q15 and Q16 are about the same yellow light. With "in principle" it is ○; with "under any circumstances" it is ×. The answer flips on a single phrase, not on the content. This is why people fail even when they take the test in their native language.

G. Pitfalls you only notice after coming to Japan

Q17.　Driving on private land such as a vacant lot or parking lot does not require a driver's license, because it is not a public road.

Answer: × (False)　Any place that is not closed off by a fence or gate and that anyone can freely enter is treated as a "road." This includes convenience store and supermarket parking lots. It can count as driving without a license, so this matters in everyday life too.

Q18.　When leaving a gas station, the driver followed the attendant's signal and crossed the sidewalk at a slow speed.

Answer: × (False)　When crossing a sidewalk to exit a facility, you must always come to a complete stop. Even if an attendant is signaling you, the driver is responsible for the decision.

How many of the 18 did you get right?

On the real test you pass with 45 correct out of 50 (90%). You can only miss 5.

Converted to 18 questions, you need 16 correct just to match the real passing line.

16–18 correct	You can compete on the real test. The next step is to work through more questions and make your results consistent
12–15 correct	You have the knowledge but are losing points to wording traps and exceptions. This is the largest group
11 or fewer correct	You are answering by your home country's rules. This is the stage of relearning them as Japan's rules

👉 The 42.8% pass rate is not because "the test is hard." It is because "you don't pass unless you score 90%." Understanding 80% is not enough.

These 21 questions are not enough

To be honest, 21 questions will not get you through the real test. The scope is broad: traffic lights, signs, right of way, slow driving, stopping and parking, pedestrian protection, expressways, towing, and even insurance. This article touches only part of it.

And as Q13 and Q14, and Q15 and Q16, showed, the same point gives a different answer when the wording changes. Solving one question and memorizing it will not prepare you for the rephrasing on the real test. You need to work through the same point many times, written in different ways.

Drivey's License Conversion course

Drivey has a course dedicated to the license conversion knowledge test. The 21 questions in this article come from it.

946 questions — This article published 21 of them. You can practice the same point over and over in different wording
Same format as the real 50-question test — The number of questions and the scoring match the real test
6 languages — Japanese, English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Burmese. You can understand "why the rule exists" in your native language before you sit the real test
Videos — See scenes that words alone can't convey, such as stopping at a crosswalk or passing through a railroad crossing
Japanese with furigana — If you take the test in Japanese, kanji won't stop you

Also, the Japanese translation of your driver's license required for the application can be prepared by Ziplus Co., Ltd., the company that runs Drivey. You can handle studying and document preparation through the same contact.

Summary

Official past exam questions are not published. Prepare with questions built backward from the test scope
Pass rate 42.8%. The passing line is 90%, so you can miss only 5 of 50 questions
People fail because of rule differences between Japan and their home country, not Japanese ability. The knowledge test is available in 20 languages
Where the differences show up depends on your country. Drivers from Indonesia, Thailand, and Nepal don't make mistakes about driving on the left. Left and right are reversed for drivers from Vietnam, China, the Philippines, and Myanmar
Drivers from Myanmar need extra care. They come from a country that drives on the right in right-hand-drive cars, so the driver's seat feels the same and only the side of the road is reversed
Roundabouts go to the left (counterclockwise). The opposite of right-hand-traffic countries
Come to a complete stop the moment a pedestrian is "about to cross." Pedestrians have priority even where there is no crosswalk
The numbers differ by location. Crosswalks: 5 meters before and after. Railroad crossings: 10 meters before and after. No overtaking: 30 meters before
"In principle" makes it ○; "under any circumstances" makes it ×. The same content flips on a single phrase

The system and fees change. This article reflects information as of September 2026. Before you apply, check the latest information with the police or driver's license center of the prefecture where you will take the test.

Sources: National Police Agency figures on license conversion results for October–December 2025 (knowledge test 42.8%, driving skills test 13.1%; reported by the Yomiuri Shimbun, Nikkei, and Nippon TV NEWS NNN) / Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, "Written tests available in foreign languages" (updated May 11, 2026) / Myanmar's switch of traffic side on December 6, 1970 (The Irrawaddy and others). The 21 questions in this article are from Drivey's License Conversion course (946 questions in total) and are not the actual test questions.

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