There is nothing more dreaded for car owners in Japan than shaken, the inspection your car must undergo every two years. The problem is the cost– or more accurately– the feeling of being ripped off.
When you have a mechanic shop or car dealer do it for you, it is regularly from ¥100,000 to ¥150,000 ($690 to $1,000). Often, the things they point out that you must fix to pass shaken seem frivolous, and in fact, that is often the case.
DIY is key to beating the DOT
As a car enthusiast who has wrenched on endless classic vehicles since I was a teen, I can confidently say that the things a mechanic tells you your car needs to pass shaken are not always needed. Basically, it’s just a money grab.
That’s why I do shaken on my own.
This is called “user shaken.” Most think it is complex and just have a shop or dealer do it. However, they are essentially paying an extra ¥50,000 to ¥100,000 to have someone do a few hours of basic procedures.
If your mechanic is really dishonest, they may add unnecessary fixes, and your cost could easily end up in the ¥200,000 to ¥400,000 range. To help you avoid that, this article will lay out the true costs of shaken, explain what they actually check, and how you can do it on your own to save a ton of cash.
The steps to shaken independence
The following is for a kei (660 cc) car’s shaken, but for regular cars, it is mostly the same. First, prepare your paperwork and make an appointment on the website. When you arrive, you submit your papers and pay the fees.
For a kei car, all fees (including two years of required liability insurance) come to under ¥28,000. As long as nothing is wrong with your car, that’s the actual cost and anything more is just the mechanic shop’s fee. Normal cars with engine sizes from 1.0-1.5 liters cost a bit more (about ¥46,000). However, prices really go up as your car’s weight and engine size increases. If your car is more than 13 years old, there is a small increase as well — and another if it is 18 years old or more.
Before your inspection, remove any custom parts because you’d be surprised at how picky they can be. Also, remove wheel covers because the inspector will do a silly soft tap on each lug nut with a hammer to “check” them. Tuners hate shaken because things like custom exhaust, window tint, aftermarket wheels that stick out beyond the fender (even just by one centimeter), body kits that change the length or width of the car and more can all make you fail.
There are silly things that can make you fail, as well, such as if you put on a shift knob that doesn’t have the shift pattern on it. Another ridiculous reason to fail is if you have a custom steering wheel that doesn’t have a horn symbol on it. An easy fix for this is to just buy a horn symbol sticker and put it on the button.
Then, you drive up to the building and the staff will check your car’s VIN. Next, they will check your turn signals, seat belt light, position lights, headlights, hazards, brights, horn, emergency brake, reverse lights, wipers and if the windshield fluid shoots out or not. You also cannot have any warning lights on your dash related to ABS brakes or airbags.
Next, you will drive up to the emissions check area. You get out of your car and insert a probe into your exhaust pipe. The system is automated and after around 30 seconds a screen will tell you if you passed.
After that, you drive on top of rollers, and a monitor will tell you to accelerate to 40km and when you hit it, you must flash your headlights. This is to test that your speedometer is accurate. You must also slowly drive through another section that checks your car's alignment.
Then, a machine moves in front of your headlights and checks the angle and strength of each.
Finally, you will drive onto a hoist and your car will be lifted with you inside it. A monitor will tell you to turn your steering wheel all the way right and left and also to wiggle it left and right. While you are doing it staff will tap your undercarriage suspension parts with a hammer to ensure nothing is completely loose and give everything a quick eyeball. That process is only a minute, so it isn’t enough time to carefully check every bushing and part underneath that shops usually insist are required to pass shaken.
If everything passes, you park and give your paperwork to the window at the end of the inspection station and they will give you the new sticker to put on your windshield.
... the things a mechanic tells you your car needs to pass shaken are not always needed. Basically, it’s just a money grab.
You failed! Do not pass go, do not collect your shaken sticker
If you fail, you can come back two more times that day without cost. A new trend is to fail cars for headlight angle. Shops that specifically only do this adjustment with big, expensive-looking machines identical to those in the inspection center are nearly always right across the street from each center. It is a bit fishy to me since car headlights never go out of alignment unless you’ve had a crash. However, it usually only costs ¥1,500 and only takes five minutes, so you can just go right back to the inspection center and go through the whole process again. Beyond the three tries, you’ll have to pay an extra ¥1,000 or so to start the process over again.
If you can’t pass on that day, you will have 15 days to make the necessary repairs and come back for re-inspection. If your inspection has already expired, though, you’ll have to get a kari nanbaa (special license plate) to drive your car to the inspection center.
If you really need your car to pass that day, less mechanically-inclined individuals may opt to stop by a tesutaa (tester) shop. These are mechanic shops that offer a very basic inspection to prepare your car for shaken for around ¥10,000. They can adjust your headlights beforehand to ensure they pass, and check other small things that might make you fail.
Shaken’s stranglehold on tuning culture
Japanese car culture seems like paradise to many foreign enthusiasts. What a lot of them don’t realize is the nightmare that shaken is for tuners. If you modify your car even in the slightest way, you’ll need to bring it back to stock form every two years. So, if you change your seats, wheels or exhaust, you’ll need to keep the stock ones to put back on.
For those who have limited space, this can quickly become impractical. Despite Japan being the source of the most desired cars like the “Godzilla” Skyline, storied car clubs like Mid Night Club, famous fabricators like Akira Nakai, drifting and bosozoku-style customization, the Japanese government is not very car enthusiast friendly.
That fact, along with the high price of gasoline and highway fares, makes having a customized or older car in Japan quite expensive and troublesome. If you can do shaken yourself you can lessen the pain.
Don’t let Japanese car inspections leave you shaken
Doing shaken yourself is a bit confusing, but just consider the fact that you are essentially paying yourself upwards of ¥100,000 or more for just a few hours of work.
An added bonus is you learn to work on your car. You might be surprised how fun it can be. It also gives you a sense of pride in that you can do it yourself. You might even get into it and want to purchase something more than just an appliance to get you from point A to point B. If so, your car may turn from being a futsuusha (normal car) to an aisha (beloved car).
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, it’s not just about the destination, but the journey as well.
Dr. James Rogers is a university professor who has published books and over 50 articles on linguistics and Japanese studies. He is the author of the book "On Living and Working in Japan."
© Japan Today
17 Comments
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ak
Ugh, I always had a feeling a lot of the things my mechanic made me fix when shaken came around were BS.
browny1
Interesting post.
Agree with the sentiments of it's the journey not the destination.
Plus you may get a bit closer to the realities of your car.
But in all honesty I'd rather go to my mechanic who does everything - even all the minor stuff often for "service"(free).
I can chat with him/them about different things and if anything needs replacing / fixing then it gets done on the spot. No back and forth required. Never heard of paying for headlight adjustment.
No - my call is find a GOOD mechanico! Can be a hassle but you will not regret it. Like finding a good dentist or doctor.
My experience over the decades has seen shaken costs come down considerably due to competition with the dealers.
The labour costs for my shaken are around ￥10,000+ and I get bonus points worth ￥50 / liter off fuel for 60l a month.
But if you're mechanically inclined go to the center. I did once - just too much bother.
kohakuebisu
The "paperwork" you have to prepare includes an extensive checksheet including all of the things that are supposed to be checked, like brake wear. The reason the inspection at the center with the rollers etc. is very simple is that the authorities take it on trust that everything on the checksheet has actually been checked. If you just tick everything off without checking, it's unlikely you will get caught.
To pass the test at the center, a car just needs to have functioning indicators, aligned headlights, a non dirty exhaust without a hole in it (you can fix it with tape), and the abilty to reach 40km/h on rollers with reasonable speedo accuracy. This means a car with a broken transmission that won't get into higher gears or a diesel Hilux with a cracked cylinder head (notorious) might still pass so long as it can get to forty.
Like browny says, its increasingly becoming a myth that shaken is a ripoff with lots of spurious charges. Lots of cheaper people to go to now. If you have a big or big-engined car, the big rip off is the weight tax, which you will still pay even with a self shaken. For people with their own insurance (i.e., almost everyone), the compulsory jibaiseki hoken is arguably a rip off too. For many, its insurance that they never get to use.
Mr Kipling
That shaken is difficult or strict is one of the biggest myths in Japan.
This is not always the case.
vendingmachinemusic
Always found the local gas station, to be cheapest. Even autobacs, did it for relatively cheap.
Hawk
I don't mind having our local mechanic doing it just for the convenience. They pick it up, get it done, and bring it back in a couple hours. They offer us a loaner but we have two cars.
However, once our car was at the shop and they called to say they would need to replace the wiper fluid, and that it would cost about 1500 yen. I walked down there with the bottle I'd bought for 399 yen at Don Quixote and filled it myself.
Eastmann
misleading unbalanced story where local mechanics or car dealers are pictured as a thieves.
have a good mechanic so car will be properly checked.
you will be sure abt cars condition.and if have enough of money to buy a car and pay for legal fees-pay some coins more for mechanic-best advice i can give.
Gene Hennigh
I wouldn't mind paying to have it done. If I did it myself I wouldn't have a car left at all.
kkindus
Do you also trust all the advice your doctor gives? I guess all those doctors that prescribed opioids for years and created a whole generation of addicts were really acting in their patients' best interests? I mean, I'm quite keen on being careful about my health, but I don't think every doctor I saw had my best interest in mind, and I do question them, or take my health problems into my own hands at times, and am so much healthier because of that. Sure, some trustworthy mechanics out there, but dishonest ones are a universal problem throughout the world. And dealers are notorious for that as well. What's wrong with learning how to save a bit of cash? Not everyone is rich, you know? Most of the Japanese people I know always say shaken is always expensive.
kohakuebisu
Yes, things like this, wiper blades, or the big potential cost at shaken time, which is if they tell you to change tyres and charge you full price for new ones. I usually buy used tyres and wheels.
I always pay a lot at shaken time but its because we have a 3.5 and a 2.2 and the tax on them is high. The part of the payment that actually goes to the garage is small.
GuruMick
Time is money and my time is precious....{spend a lot of time annoying conservatives on this forum }
I just pay my bloke and get over it.
I live too remotely from the "Shaken place " anyway.
Mr Kipling
If time is a problem then use Skaken pit or Autobacs etc. Never a main dealer!
Mocheake
I did my own shaken for many years. The hardest part was writing my extremely long address legibly. Took a few minutes
Antiquesaving
I used to do it myself, but Today with the system permitting private locations to do it (in my case U-car Toyota dealership) it is far faster and the tiny extra cost is far less than the time lost from work doing it myself.
I but only used cars, the last few cars from the same Toyota U-car dealer.
I include the cheapest 2 year "maintenance package" which is the same cost as the general things I would normally do but includes shaken service.
So at shaken time the car doesn't need anything.
Arrive at Toyota at the set time, they take the car into their garage and do the paperwork, yes they will try like always to sell you a new air filter or oil change/filter etc..but just say no because the last 6 month maintenance package already covered that.
You are out in 15 to 20 minutes after paying the insurance and taxes (shaken) the end.
Zero waste of time no extra shaken service charges ni need to go to the shaken office, no more need to leave the car for the dealer to take it to the shaken office.
What the above article forget and it is obvious from this line:
Today's cars are far to dangerous to start doing anything to them, one wrong move and the computerized system will shut your car down, and you will be required to get an authorized dealer to unlock the diagnostic system costing far more than you were going to save.
Today's cars are not my old Karmann Ghia or my old Oldsmobile Toronado I had as a teen.
Antiquesaving
A few points:
1-) My ex brother in law is in the custom car parts business.
As I was explained, independent customizing garages will do the work, store your original parts and reinstall it all and get the shaken done then remount all the custom parts that wouldn't pass shaken all at a nominal fee.
These garages have loyal customers and depend on return business and referrals (I had my Prius windows tinted at a crazy low price at one recommended by my ex brother in law and it was a great job).
2-) the author seems to be living in the past, I am not trying to be mean, but today many places now are authorized to do the shaken and it takes about 15 to 30 minutes and you can say no to anything that isn't 100% needed, and the light angle they just set it as part of the service no charge so not even an issue.
3-) as I used to do my own maintenance, it seems the author is taking about old cars and not most newer cars in the past 20 years.
Even changing the brake pads today could end up costing you more than saving. New cars with their computerized systems will detect that something has changed and without the proper machines/software, you cannot reset the warning lights/system, as I found out on my first car with such system, the bake warning light would not go off despite everything being fine, I had to bring the car into Honda and they used their diagnostic system to reset and it ended up costing more than just having someone with the diagnostic machine do the work.
If you have a classic car of older ICE without a computerized control system then great the article makes some good points.
But if your car has any of the modern systems and computer safety checks don't risk it.
A crazy example. If your Prius 12V battery dies, you cannot unlock your doors, you can unlock with key the driver's door but the battery isn't under the front hood, so you cannot boost the car in the normal way, the battery in located in the rear and you cannot unlock the back hatch.
A special connector to the system under the hood or steering is needed to then unlock the back hatch and then boost or change the battery.
If you change your battery yourself (Which is quite easy) be careful, by disconnecting the power certain models will then not start after installing the new battery because the computer system needs to be reset, to avoid This you need another tool to maintain the power while you disconnect the old battery and install the new one and yes I have experienced this and got the tool needed off of Amazon so it never happens again.
Sadly Modern cars have far too many pitfalls to be messing around with them.
That_Guy
I'm used to this with the MOT (done annually when I left). I get my servicing done at the same time as the shaken as part of a service pack, so it sails through (fingers crossed, touch wood etc) and the car feels so much better for it at the end.
When I was in the UK I used to practice Bangernomics (buy an old car and keep it running as long as possible). Only thing I never scrimped on was an annual service with a decent garage that did the MOT at the same time. I had cars bought for less than a thousand quid running over one hundred thousand miles and meeting emission standards without problem.
I'm treating my current kei the same. Bit of TLC means she should keep running for a few years yet.
リッチ
Did my own and yes it’s the saved thousands over the years. It’s painless and yes the headlight is fishy every time.