Car Insurance in Japan
You get to have your cake and eat it
I learned something new (and important) last week, so I want to share it with you today.
So last Monday I was involved in a minor traffic accident (thankfully not much damage and no one was hurt).
After calling (and waiting for) the police, the owner of the other car and I looked at the damage and decided it didn't look too serious.
"Let's get a quote and see if we can sort this out ourselves," we said to each other.
A couple of days later the phone rang and their quote was 320,000 yen. Hmmm. I contacted my insurance company and left the matter in their hands.
And that's where I learned my new thing: I had assumed that asking the insurance company to step in and do all the work of negotiating, deciding on responsibility and damages, and talking to the other party, repair places, etc. would in effect result in you making a claim on your insurance.
Not so.
You can ask them to do everything, and then at the last moment when the payment has been decided you can then ask them to do a simulation of how much your premiums will go up and pay the claim yourself if the numbers work in your favour.
I had no idea. Basically I should have called my insurance company immediately, I would have saved myself some time and some stress, and the end result would have been the same.
The key is to tell the insurance company when you contact them that you are thinking of paying the claim yourself depending on the cost. Then make sure they check with you before settling it, and you should be able to have your cake and eat it: have them do all the work and then avoid more expensive premiums for years if the claim is small enough (depending on your situation it may be better to pay smaller claims under 100,000 yen or so yourself, but do ask them for projections for your specific situation).
So if you are unlucky enough to be involved in an accident, call your insurance company immediately and have them go into action.
And if you drive in Japan, for the sake of everything holy, make sure you have unlimited third party cover for people and property. You might not need to insure your own car, but traffic accident claims here can get ridiculous fast.
Any experiences with car insurance? Any recommendations? I may be shopping for a new insurance company soon as the person in charge of my case has been pretty sloppy and her supervisor wasn't much better...
This post first ran on RetireJapan in October 2016
I didn't know that it really is good to know as while most places I would visit in Japan would be accessible via Shinkansen and a bicycle there would be times I would like to go to the countryside where driving is required and if you live in Japan that would be good to know. I have heard that the speed limits are quite slow on the highways though besides the concern of driving on a narrower street.
With a rental car you'll always have insurance, although it is worth reading the terms and conditions in order to avoid unpleasant surprises!
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.