タクシー運転うんてん手しゅの不足ふそく解消かいしょうへ 普通ふつう第だい二に種しゅ免許めんきょ 教習きょうしゅう時間じかん短縮たんしゅくへ

The National Police Agency has decided to reduce the required training hours at driving schools to obtain the Class 2 ordinary license, which allows driving taxis and hire cars, by nearly 30% to address the shortage of taxi drivers.

It is said that there was a request from the taxi industry group, and they want to lead to an increase in license holders.

In the taxi industry, there is a severe shortage of manpower, and according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the number of taxi drivers in the 2022 fiscal year was 241,951, a decrease of over 120,000 in the past decade.

To obtain a Class 2 drivers license necessary for driving taxis and hire cars at a driving school, you must first acquire a Class 1 drivers license, and then undergo 40 sessions of 50-minute lessons, totaling approximately 33 hours of academic and practical training. The taxi industry association has requested that the training hours be shortened to make it easier to obtain the license.

In response to this situation, the National Police Agency has decided to increase the number of people obtaining the Ordinary Second Class License and alleviate the shortage of taxi drivers by reducing the training time for the Ordinary Second Class License from the current 40 sessions by 11 sessions, which is approximately 9 hours, to 29 sessions.

Specifically, it involves reducing or shortening the overlapping areas with the training for obtaining a Class 1 Ordinary License, reducing the classroom instruction from 19 periods to 17 periods, and the practical training from 21 periods to 12 periods.

The National Police Agency, based on experiments conducted with traffic experts, has determined that reducing the training hours does not affect the pass rate of the examination.

The National Police Agency intends to amend the regulations of the Road Traffic Act after soliciting opinions through public comments starting from the 18th, and aims to enforce it from September this year.