Taiwanese Driver's licenses 🇹🇼 and Phone service

October has rolled around, which means I’ll be spending more time in Taiwan 🇹🇼 until next May, basically avoiding the hot months in Taiwan! I’m getting settled in, which includes life procedures like getting a local driver’s license, finding a more long term place to stay, as well as going for full Taiwanese citizenship with household registration at the end of the year! But first, I’d like to introduce a personal finance tool that I’ve found useful (and also an affiliate partner of this newsletter, for full disclosure).

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Japan tech opportunities 🇯🇵🧑‍💻

If you’re a company and would like to advertise your available positions here, please reach out!

Oracle

Oracle Japan has a number openings for Solutions Engineering (working with customers to architect cloud services - N2+ Japan required), support engineering (customer facing - N2+ Japanese required) and many others. Most of our roles require Japanese but there some that are okay with English only in the Exadata space. Reach out if interested and I can connect.

Stability.AI

Stability.AI is the maker of the popular Stable Diffusion generative AI image tool, but they do much more in the space as well. Currently they are looking for a Senior Data Engineer. The position is based in Japan and is a hybrid work model with at least one day (recommended) in the office in Tokyo per week. You can track their careers page for updates.

OpenAI (maker of ChatGPT) is still hiring for their office in Tokyo. Currently Developer Advocate, IT Support, and Solutions Engineer roles are open. For all Japan roles, visit their Japan careers page.

Expat Life in Asia Consultations 🇯🇵🇹🇼

I’d like to thank everyone for being a loyal reader so far, and I hope you’ve found all the tips helpful. I’ve been informally advising people for years on how to successfully move to Asia, especially Japan and Taiwan, and making that more into a real practice. Want to know what visa paths there are? I’ve researched most of them and went through the process myself. Want to know how to rent or buy a house in Japan? I can walk you through the process and connect you to real estate agents. Want to know how to set up your life here, such as various life and government procedures, financial accounts, connectivity, etc.? I have first have experience. You can see all sessions and book from my profile page. I also would appreciate any referrals if you know people who could use this knowledge!

Exchanging Foreign Driver’s Licenses in Taiwan

If you're planning a longer stay in Taiwan and want a local driver's license, it's possible to exchange your foreign license, provided your country has reciprocity with Taiwan. Many rental agencies will only take local licenses and not International Driver’s Permits. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) provides a list of reciprocal countries here. While the list shows which countries recognize Taiwanese driver’s licenses, it doesn’t explicitly say whether Taiwan recognizes each country’s license—though generally, if reciprocity exists, exchange should be possible.

Eligibility

Your country and province/state must have reciprocity with Taiwan. A big example is that there quite a few US states that don’t, such as California.

You can apply for a license exchange from the first day you're in Taiwan, provided you have:

• For foreigners, an ARC (Alien Resident Certificate, 外僑居留證; wàiqiáo jūliúzhèng) valid for at least 6 months.

• For Taiwanese nationals with household registration, National ID card (身分證, shēnfènzhèng) or Military ID card.

• For Taiwanese nationals without household registration, a TARC (Taiwan Area Resident Certificate, 台灣地區居留證; táiwān dìqū jūliú zhèng) valid for at least 6 months.

Process and Documents

Here’s a breakdown of the steps and required documents to exchange your foreign driver’s license. After gathering the documents, you should head to your local Motor Vehicles Office (監理所, jiānlǐ suǒ).

1. Required Documents:

   • Original foreign driver’s license (must be valid and not expired).

   • A Chinese translation of your license if it’s not in English. This translation needs to be notarized in Taiwan by the foreign country’s consulate or representative office or other authorized agencies, or an official public notary registered in Taiwan. If in the foreign country, by a consulate or representative office of Taiwan.

   • Your TARC/ARC or ID card, along with a photocopy. For me, the Motor Vehicle agency made the photocopy for me.

   • Proof of entry/exit records (available from Taiwan’s immigration authorities). In practice, this was not needed, I just provided my ARC.

   • Medical checkup certificate from a public hospital within the past year.

     • The form can be obtained right at the Motor Vehicle Office. All Motor Vehicle Offices will have some nearby clinic where you can do this checkup without an appointment. It’s a simple test that checks leg function, hearing, and vision. It took me around 15 minutes not including wait time and cost 400 NTD. No hassle at all!

   • Two one-inch color photos with a plain background, taken within the past 2 years.

     • There should be photobooths right at the office, so I just took mine there for 150 NTD or so.

     • One is needed for the health check, and another one is needed for the actual license. Don’t worry about cutting the photos out, they can do that for you.

2. License Exchange Process:

   • I exchanged a Japanese driver’s license, and the same Chinese translation I used for driving in Taiwan that I got at the Japan Taiwan Exchange Association also worked for the certification needed for the exchange.

   • The cost was 200 NTD, payable in cash or with a Taiwanese credit card.

   • After submitting all documents, the processing time was about 20 minutes.

Key Notes:

• Countries with Reciprocity: If your country is on Taiwan's list of reciprocal agreements, you should be able to exchange your license. Some countries, however, may require you to surrender your original license. Search the internet for details on the exchange process for your country, as it’s not listed in the official tables.

• Vehicle class: Each class of vehicle is separate, like motorcycle, large motorcycle, light car, large passenger van, truck, etc. Even if your foreign license is combined, you must go through separate applications for each class of vehicle you want to drive.

• For ARC Holders: Licenses for foreigners staying on an ARC are generally valid for 6 years. If you later obtain Taiwanese household registration and National ID, you can update your license with your new UI number (統一證號, tǒngyī zhèng hào) , which grants extended validity until the year 75. You need to bring the household registration documents that link your old UI number to your new UI number you get as a citizen.

This process was straightforward, and it’s a great option for anyone staying long-term in Taiwan who needs a valid driver’s license.

Getting mobile phone service in Japan as a non-resident

While it’s fairly easy to get data while in Japan through the various SIM card providers, it’s tougher to get a working Japanese phone number. To fight phone scams, identification is required to get a phone number. However, having a working number is useful for various reasons, such as calling businesses, receiving texts, and a number of services require providing a phone number.

Most carriers require a residence card to get a long term phone plan, however there are a few that do cater to the foreigner market and provide service to non-residents. For example, my friend is a non-resident and she bought a property in Japan. She was spending some amount of time to get that completed, and all the services she would need for that, such as utilities and internet, and need a phone number for those.

These services allow you to have a stable phone number and data, even if you're not in Japan full-time.

Mobile Service Providers

1. Sakura Mobile: Offers plans with voice and data options. Requires proof of property ownership or a residence card. Unused data rolls over to the next month.

2. Hana Mobile: A flexible, flat-rate data plan where you only pay for the months you use. Ideal for those who need a stable voice number but don’t use data regularly. My friend’s referral link.

3. Mobal: A straightforward SIM option with varying data plans and no need for a residence card.

All of these have no termination fee, and offer unlimited low speed data after your quota runs out.

Comparison Table:

These options provide flexibility depending on how often you're in Japan and your data needs. Hana Mobile is not the cheapest, but can make sense if you aren’t in Japan often and just need to keep a number long term.

If you are in Japan long-term, and you have a valid residence card, I still suggest one of the budget carriers that I outlined in this article. In my case, Rakuten Mobile (referral link) works well as it’s only 968 yen/month if you stay under 3GB usage a month.

Notes for Taiwanese phone plans

I got a new Pixel 9 Pro recently, and wanted to switch the eSIM from Taiwan Mobile from my iPhone to my new phone. It seems like at least for Taiwan Mobile it’s not possible to do this online, and I had to go physically into a store. When signing up for the plan as a foreigner, I knew I had to bring 2 sets of id, namely my ARC and passport. However, I didn’t realize to do any sort of administrative procedure, I also had to bring the same sets of ID, and was turned away when I only had my ARC. This should go away when I get citizenship, so I would only have to bring National ID (身分證, shēnfèn zhèng).

Anyways, it seems like the first time eSIM replacement with Taiwan Mobile is free, or the first time you switch from a physical SIM to eSIM, however, subsequent replacements cost 300 NTD. This unfortunately came into place because of a miscommunication with the staff member, who proceeded to reinstall the eSIM on the same phone instead of switching it, then said that it would cost 300 NTD to reissue the eSIM to fix the mistake 🤦‍♂️.

Linking your PayPay app and PayPay Card

PayPay is a useful method in Japan for paying merchants as well other people. Often, if a merchant doesn’t take credit card, they will offer some cashless options like PayPay. However, if you don’t have enough balance to make a transaction, it can be annoying to top up more balance to complete it. Either you have to have a PayPay Bank, account charge to a supported phone plan like SoftBank, Yahoo Mobile, or LINEMO, get a friend to send you money, or add money to PayPay via ATM. Even if you have another bank linked for withdrawals, only PayPay Bank is supported for top ups!

The PayPay credit card helps solve this by allowing you to instantly top up from your credit balance while still earning PayPay points. However, even after applying and successfully getting a PayPay card, it did not show up in my PayPay app. For a long period of time, it just wasn’t linked, likely due to some identification information mismatch, and I even tried to contact PayPay customer service about this. Even after filling out forms to match information on my credit card, it still didn’t work. When I tried to select PayPay card in the app, I would only get a dialog to apply for a new card.

Fortunately, there now seems to be a process to fix this right from the app. I was able to confirm and fix my identification information to match, and was able to log in and get the two linked.

Here’s the official help page on how to fix the issue when your registered information doesn’t match.

Conclusions

These are some of the life tips that I found useful recently, and I expect that I’ll encounter more interesting Asia life situations going forward. You can always reach out at [email protected] for comments or questions! Remember, you can also support this publication by becoming a paid subscriber or a Patreon!