That’s good to know. It’s a situation I haven’t encountered yet, so I’ve never looked into it. My wife once had a situation with our car where the truck driver who side swiped it just paid out of pocket for the damages. Afterward, everyone told us we took a major chance believing the driver at his word, but it worked out.
I have done what you did. It worked out in my case too. I think the Japanese are far too careful sometimes. Having said that, this is good info to know @retirejapan. Thanks for sharing it.
My pleasure @dbooster :)
The bare minimum is to always call the police. It is both a legal obligation and will protect you from (rare) weird or criminal drivers.
In this instance I mentioned, my wife had to chase the truck driver and flag him down. Then he tried to deny it was his fault, but my wife insisted, took his identification, and then called his phone to make sure he wasn’t lying to her. I think because he was working and operating a work vehicle, he wanted to settle things quietly. I wasn’t there though, so I’m not really sure.