User-Shaken - DIY MOT Guide

As I covered last week, the shaken process can be very expensive. You can drastically cut that cost (by around two thirds) by doing the thing yourself.

AccessJ's comprehensive guide starts today. Check back every week for the whole thing. Follow our RSS feed, Twitter or Facebook accounts for updates.

User-shaken (or self-shaken, ユーザー車検 or whatever you want to call it) eliminates the middleman. All the charges incurred this way cover weight tax, compulsory insurance and paperwork processing fees only. For this reason you can shaken a yellow-plate car for about 35,000yen and a white-plate for 50-60,000.

Base shaken fees are as follows:

■ Vehicle weight tax

Type: Yellow-plate White-plate by weight < 1ton <1.5ton <2ton <2.5ton Price: ¥ 7,600 ¥ 20,000 ¥ 30,000 ¥ 40,000 ¥ 50,000

■ Automobile liability (compulsory) insurance

24 months 25 months Yellow-plate ¥ 21,970 ¥ 22,650 White-plate ¥ 24,950 ¥ 25,750

※ The above rates are accurate as of March 2012. ※ Okinawa differs.

■ Processing fee (forms etc) ¥ 1,100 ~ ¥ 1,800  Chart adapted from the Autobacs website.

Of course, if something is seriously wrong with your car, it won't pass. If the problem is mild enough, you can get it fixed and bring it back same day for no charge.

Here's the process in brief. See the links below for in-depth coverage.

1. Perform a 60-point check on your vehicle.
   You will need to use a 点検整備記録簿 ( tenkenseibi kirokubo) form.
2. Book an appointment for your paperwork and tunnel test.
   You must use this website (in Japanese), or this one if you have a yellow-plate (kei) car to find your nearest centre and choose a day and time (up to 10/14 days in advance).
3. Go to the centre.
   Here you must fill out the paperwork and pay the fees listed above.
4. Go through the tunnel.
   Sit in your car and drive through several tests - brakes, lights, speedomoter, etc.
5. Celebrate how easy it was and wonder why more people don't do it.

Shaken Guide:
1. The Shaken
2. User Shaken
3. Booking a User Shaken
4. Paperwork
5. Tunnel Test
6. Necessary Vocabulary