Correct Japan license plate?

[torchard]

I see a few owners have these. Was looking at some on ebay. Could you tell me what category of plate e.g. heavy car, light truck would be correct for these vans? Thanks.

[marsgal42]

Private vehicle, not kei jidosha: green lettering on white. Ideally, you want a 300-series number (heavy car) after the prefecture name, because our Delicas have engines bigger than 2 litres.

It could be interesting to get the correct plates for the prefecture your Delica lived in before emigrating. The parking sticker on the back will tell you, though it's in Japanese...

...laura

[mararmeisto]

Here is a fairly thorough interpretation of licence plates in Japan. Now I'm interested to 'translate' the one I have...

[delica 304]

I still like mine 'cause it sounds kinda dirty!



That and it's harder to find a 'real' plate nowadays, most of the ones you see on ebay are vanity style plates with a car's designation (RX-8, 300ZX, ect) or engine type

[mararmeisto]

Photo_20080623_192758.jpg (51.14 KiB) Viewed 3220 times

Mine can be interpreted as (I think):

• Kobe prefecture
  5-series light commercial
  'se' hiragana
  2 two-digit identifier code

What makes my plate unique (and probably not authentic) is the fact it luminesces.

[Green1]

What makes my plate unique (and not authentic) is the fact it luminesces.

This doesn't necessarily mean it's not authentic. I don't know about Japan, but not all countries operate as we do here for license plates, I know many places allow you to make your own as long as the font and style falls within specific parameters. (in fact many countries you MUST make your own as the registry doesn't issue any) therefore all sorts of things are possible, from back lighting, to minor colour differences etc.

[delica 304]

I don't know about Japan, but not all countries operate as we do here for license plates, I know many places allow you to make your own as long as the font and style falls within specific parameters. (in fact many countries you MUST make your own as the registry doesn't issue any) therefore all sorts of things are possible, from back lighting, to minor colour differences etc.

I wish they let us do that here!

[loki]

mine came from Japan with the back lit holders but no plates in them so I think the back lit is legit (too legit to quit (lol I had to do it))

[torchard]

From the wikipedia link above "White plates for private vehicles were offered starting in the late 1980's with the green lettering replaced with molded green plastic that could be illumiated from behind the plate when the license plate lights were switched on"

--T

[torchard]

Parking sticker?

Private vehicle, not kei jidosha: green lettering on white. Ideally, you want a 300-series number (heavy car) after the prefecture name, because our Delicas have engines bigger than 2 litres.

It could be interesting to get the correct plates for the prefecture your Delica lived in before emigrating. The parking sticker on the back will tell you, though it's in Japanese...

...laura